


So You've Got That Wildfire In Your Soul?

by Blazinggaze



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Heroes AU, I do not plan on hurting my children too badly I promise, Scorpia owns a bakery, She-Ra being cool and powerful, WHERE ARE MY LESBIANS?, can I write fight scenes? Maybe, catradora is gonna be slowburn, don't ask about how the powers work idk either, dw the other characters shall make an appearance, good vibes, horde vs the rebellion, it's kinda a mess sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24903634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazinggaze/pseuds/Blazinggaze
Summary: Adora is She-Ra, one of The Rebellion's heroes that protect Etheria and fight off the Horde, she's also a chaotic lesbian and a uni student. This is her stumbling through all the challenges that come with that and oh dear. The New Horde Recruit is hot.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49





	1. Fighting Crime and Vanilla Milkshakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kissedthegirlsandmadethemcry](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kissedthegirlsandmadethemcry).



> Hey hi! This is kind of a prologue chapter 'cause Catra isn't physically in it but this is like 3k and I didn't want it to get too long?? If any slang trips you up sorry I am but a humble kiwi. If there is anything truly wack about this it's all Ava's fault I promise, I clearly had nothing to do it.
> 
> Some songs that I listened to whilst writing this so maybe you'd like them too?
> 
> SUPERBLOOM- Misterwives (nothing dodgy here)  
> Hunger- AURORA  
> Ultimately- kahi dreams  
> Constant Runners - Josef Salvat
> 
> Hey Ava! I know you've read this already but eh I hope you enjoy anyway <]:D

Adora was seriously behind with her coursework, but that didn’t really matter right now since it was raining heavily and She-Ra was pelting after this low-rank Horde recruit who decided it was a bright idea to rob a dairy while she was patrolling.

She was all white against the night, hair glowing golden and perfect even in the rain which was kind of one of her favourite perks of her powers. (not that she’d tell anyone that) The Horde recruit was a scrap of a kid, small, skinny and shadowy. Their hood had been blown off as they ducked and dived just out of She-Ra’s grasp revealing a wickedly cool undercut with buzzed first ones writing. If they weren’t a literal criminal she’d ask them where they’d gotten it done.

A rubbish bin toppled over her path, swearing she threw her sword out form her hands and vaulted over it, just barely able to get her rain-slicked fingers back around the pommel before the kid made a hairpin turn into an alley.

Several blurred streaks that could be cats darted past them as they both struggled to avoid tripping. The kid skidded to a stop at a dead end. Putting on a final burst of speed She-Ra careened towards them. They launched themselves up and onto a skip, a hand already outstretched to snap around the rungs of the fire escape ladder. She-Ra barely had time to think, she saw the strap of the bag, stuffed with cash, saw an opening and sliced upwards.

“SERIOUSLY?” She poured frustration and shock into her voice though she tried not to speak much as She-Ra, people were pretty sharp and her voice didn’t alter at all with the use of her powers.

The Horde Recruit just gave a vicious, sharp smile barely visible as they scrambled into the shadows.

She-Ra mimicked the look. They faltered for a moment.

Their bag hit her hand. That moment right there, with her chest heaving, sword in her palm and knowing that she'd won, unavoidably won, amazingly won, was something she could never get over.

“Dude why would you even run though? You know you’ve been ID’d by the police?” This time she tried to pitch her voice deeper, it kinda worked.

They didn’t respond not that she thought they would, plus it wasn’t her job to chase them down and put them into custody first off, who has the time? Second, it’s always been a huge legal grey area when heroes do the whole ‘vigilante’ act.

‘powering down’ from She-Ra to Adora was difficult since She-Ra was a 7ft warrior who literally glowed and had a massive sword, very hard to miss in a crowd and honestly? It was very obvious to see the similarities when She-Ra walked into an alley and Adora walked out.

Bow and Entrapta the glorious people that they are, figured out a system of disused corridors and passageways long forgotten (and long inhabited by spiders) to use to scamper around the city to throw people off the trail. It came in very handy when the news outlets were really pleased with She-Ra saving the lives of many folk and refusing to leave her side for even the barest of moments.

Coming back into her own body, with her own proportions was always a bit of a trip, it felt kind of like when you go for a run in new shoes, the old ones being so worn that your foot is supported completely differently now, it’s a good differently, a more in control differently, but still throws you off the slightest bit. Not that She-Ra was in any way worn or old, oh no it was probably how F1 drivers felt, having so much power that the only real limits is the damage to the tires. It was crazy and wild but too much crazy and wild and you become very far removed from who you set out to be.

Adora looked at her sword, covered in one of the myriad cloaks and things scattered around various exit and entry points in the tunnels. Bow and Entrapta had managed to do some funky tech thing to make it into a size changing charm that hung around her neck, If anyone asked? It was merch. Identical to thousands of other sword charms. Adora was just happy that she didn’t have to leave it somewhere, unlike her suit which was a whole situation to carry on her person.

When she finally made it back to the apartment ( bag of money dropped off with a very tired looking detective) Glimmer was long asleep, tucked into her bed buried in soft toys, Bow curled on the outskirts of it all but still cuddling a big stuffed jellyfish.

Adora took a photo (without flash) and closed the door. They always tried to stay up for her but since Adora went out so frequently and so late it became a bit too much. Which probably means Adora should be sleeping.

So she did. Barely, a little, mind constantly drifting to the news reports and the work she still had to do. She did try to relax but these days it was just getting harder and harder to fall asleep.

Over breakfast Adora was scrolling through her Instagram, a common, time consuming habit that helped literally nobody since most of it was just her falling into a trap of loving how girls looked when they smoked but then remembering the cancer, smell, cost and taste. Then her nose screws up and she feels momentarily bad until something else bright and colourful flashes across her screen.

Currently she was working through her explore page which was mostly figure skaters since- women? Being graceful and angelic? She rests her case.

A honey coloured and coated hand waves in between her phone and face.

Adora juts her chin up before looking taking half a second to prepare herself for the catastrophe that is Glimmer and Bow’s baking. Not that anything they made tasted bad, in fact it always tasted fantastic it was that everything surrounding the incident of the baking was a disaster.

Sure enough, Glimmer had all sorts through her hair and across her cheeks and nose. Bow was nowhere to be seen but that’s because he was more likely to attempt to dislodge the half-baked gunk from his person.

“What did you make?”

Glimmer leveled a look and at her then at her honey covered hand.

“Sticky buns.”

Adora craned her neck to see the kitchen and sure enough, disaster.

Although, it did smell fantastic.

“Are these available for testing?” She couldn’t help the excited note that crept into her voice and body language.

Glimmer smiled violently and with half her mouth so fast did it appear that Adora was almost certain she’d hurt herself doing so. It was, the trademark grin of a girl who knew that she’d been forgiven and now had the upper hand.

“Maybe.”

“Did you even… Do your coursework?“

Glimmer’s face falls like a curtain.

“No. In fact I didn’t it was stressing me out so I decided to bake.”

Adora held up her hands.

“I am just concerned for you, I’m all for breaks but I also have seen your to-do list.”

She let her façade break, though Glimmer wasn’t pleased she was also very aware of her temper.

“I hate that you have said something I can’t disagree with.”

“I can be responsible!”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Honestly-?”

Bow slid into the room with speed and force, crashing into the counter, partly because of his Christmas themed socks but mostly because of sheer determination.

“ADORA CHECK YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW”

Stunned into compliance she did. It took a bit for her to realise what she was looking at since it was obviously filmed in the dead of the night, the newspersons voice rang out even and serious as they described all they knew about this breaking news.

Apparently, the shadowy woman was a new villain, a Force Captain for the horde shown by the grainy close-up of her badge. They went on to say how witnesses outside a petrol station where she was seen, described the villain as a cat-hybrid with long wavy hair, they couldn’t see much else except that she was obviously athletic, and Horde affiliated. Which was why it was even making it to the news, thousands had powers but if you weren’t apart of the Horde or the Rebellion they didn’t want to know you.

It wasn’t hugely detailed as breaking news rarely was. Adora looked back up to Bow and Glimmer who had crowded over her to see.

“This, this is very much not good.”

Glimmer nodded mutely a line appearing between her eyebrows. Bow rubbed her shoulder but his own face was in trapped in a rut of concentration.

“Do we need to go?” Adora said shutting off her phone as the video looped.

She knew the answer already, they couldn’t do anything but speculate until something major happened, until she was a proven threat Catra would remain largely in the periphery of the Rebellions eye. It was a long worn out conversation but it didn’t stop the pool of dread Adora felt every time Glimmer or Bow shook their head. 

Etheria was her playground, her concrete sandbox, she knew every corner and every alley. And when she was like this? Running as fast as her legs could take her, hair whipping back and forth, the steady thrum of her feet as they dug into the pavement, ducking and diving between pedestrians barely hearing their surprised noises as the tore by. It was magical, it didn’t matter that as Adora, plain old Adora, she didn’t have any powers that she couldn’t help everybody because pushing her body to the limits, feeling like she was flying, feeling like if she wanted to she could reach up and bend the buildings down like Play-Doh was far to nice. Her whole body was alive, every cell seemed to fit into place she barely had to tell her body where to go because it just knew, everything had kicked into a higher gear, including her spirits.

She stumbled to a stop in front a bakery, well. The Bakery, not that that was the name of it but because without rhyme or reason one day Adora’s feet had stopped here and continued to do so whether she thought about coming here or not. Glimmer had shaken her head professing her (ongoing) confusion as to how that even worked. Bow drove Glimmer up the wall when he said it made sense. Adora walked in with a broad smile, both because of the memory and oh my goodness yes the s m e l l .

She checked her watch as she lent against one of the window counters by the door, thankfully she had time to get to work after drowning her insides with smoothies and anything that contained butter or yeast.

Three sunshine yellow walls, soft brown tables with uncountable nicks and notches that cut through the varnish, chairs that creak in a self-satisfied not broken just comfortable way, pictures of flowers and fields, up-beat but not mind-numbing music. All of it combined with cracked leather couches, airy window seating. The clean smell of fresh flowers just under a cloud of bread and biscuity goodness that gently ushered you out the door when you leave.

Yeah, Flower Fields was her favourite place in Etheria.

The wait wasn’t long and so Adora hadn’t quite caught her breath by the time she had to order which made it a slightly awkward interaction but Scorpia the woman who was constantly behind the cash register never judged anyone that walked through her door and so Adora didn’t melt into a puddle after finding a seat.

She yet again fell into her phone and was checking and re-checking all the websites to see what they were saying about Catra, so far, no new news. Though that young Horde Recruit had been found and dumped into custody.

Her milkshake was ready and she took it with greedy hands unable to stop her bubbling excitement because VANILLA.

Mermista was a hefty coffee drinker and henceforth refused to even look at a café when Adora was in her presence. Detesting the idea that Adora simply did not drink coffee. Adora messages her a picture of her milkshake just to spite her.

Bow called her just as she was at the self-conscious annoying part of drinking a milkshake, the dreaded slurping noises.

“Hey!” Her voice beamed sunlight through the receiver

“Okay what’s got you in such a good mode? Did you do an awesome save last night? Nah you’d tell us if you did.”

“OKAY I’m glad you think I’m self obsessed Bow 10/10 friendship right there.”

“You know it’s true.”

It kinda was, but hey! Adora was allowed to brag about helping people! humility was for clergymen.

“Adora…?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, nothing totally awesome happened but I’m drinking a vanilla milkshake which means it’s literally impossible for me to be in a bad mood.”

“Are you seriously at The Bakery _again_?”

“Yes because this is a lovely establishment thank you very much.”

She heard his laughter even as he pulled away from the phone as not to deafen her, which was a kind thing to do since Adora only did that when she was laughing to hard to hold up her phone.

“Okay okay- I’m calmer now, still no news about Catra though.”

“It hasn’t even been 24 hrs.”

“I know but for some reasons she didn’t strike me as someone who would wait for darkness.”

Adora mulled that over while trying not to be gross as she finished off the very last of the milkshake.

“Wait what happened to the sticky buns?” Her body snapped into attention. “Please tell me you didn’t eat them all or I might literally have to kill you.”

Bow sounded scandalised. “Seriously? Who do you think I am? I do have self-restraint.”

“Do you?”

“I told you we don’t speak of that.”

“I didn’t say anything about it.”

Bow chatted on about how hard it was to clean up the mess and how Glimmer had started a civil war with him since he wouldn’t do all her work. Adora listened and commented but her brain was swimming in peace and warmth.

They said goodbye but Adora still had half an hour to lounge around she eventually found herself on one of the couches with her eyes closed, somehow relaxing came easily just before work and especially when she was here. She could almost… Fall… Asleep…

“Hey, hi, well, sorry to disturb you I mean you’re clearly resting and I don’t want to bother you but uh-“

Adora cracked open her eyes and slid into a more reasonable sitting position.

“It’s okay, Scorpia right?”

Scorpia looked thoroughly embarrassed but to her credit she didn’t back down, and Adora wasn’t some awful person who didn’t have the patience to give people a little bit of space to collect themselves.

“Yeah, that’s me anyway- I couldn’t help but notice your necklace?”

She looked down and sure enough her sword was dangling down, the soft crystal catching the light.

“Oh, Oh!” Adora was generally very wary of someone even looking at it but Scorpia was one of those people who you just trusted, without fail every customer who entered her bakery left in higher spirits, and that kind of magic is not one powers will ever grant you.

She managed to get the fiddly clasp that had to be a quarter the size of her pinkie nail undone and let Scorpia examine it.

“Wow I mean, wow this is really cool, where did you even get this?”

Oh, how Adora hated lying to people who didn’t deserve it.

“Well I don’t actually know since one of my friends gave it to me but it’s a really cool bit of merch though right?”

“Yeah they did well…” She almost sounded sad, and Adora didn’t know why or how but she was determined to fix that.

The door opened bringing in a wall of cold air that sent goose bumps right up Adora’s arms.

The woman that opened looked like springtime despite her raincoat, a beautiful colour that probably had a more artistic name but Adora could only call ‘cranberry’ dripping and flinging small droplets of water to everything within range.

Scorpia as if burned, rushed back behind the counter. Adora just tucked her necklace back in to her shirt and checked the time.

“Are you in a rush?” Scorpia said, her voice all admiration.

“no, it’s a Saturday.” The woman’s voice was soft and even. That was when Adora realised she knew her, that was Perfuma how she hadn’t realised before Adora didn’t know, but Adora also forgot the Spanish word for tortilla so…

Adora also realised that this was lesbian activity and began Definitely Not Listening™.

“Well, If you have time I do have a new recipe I’d like you to try out for me…”

“Of course!”

Scoripia brought her a plate with a couple biscotti on it, and a fresh cup of coffee which Perfuma accepted gratefully.

“It’s pistachio and orange”

She then began examining it in much more detail than Adora had seen anyone do, tipping it this way and that. Measuring how many pistachio chunks there were to flecks of orange rind, how good the bake was, the colour and the smell.

Scoripia looked entirely mesmerised with the whole production.

Clearly meeting her standards Perfuma took a bite, without dunking it first, and her head tilted to the side ever so slightly, delicate eyebrows drawn together. She ran her tongue over her teeth and hummed lightly. Without saying a word, she drew the striped coffee cup over and dunked it in, waiting a few moments for it to truly soak up.

“It’s a pleasure to eat, even if you don’t dunk, it won’t break your teeth like some biscotti will, yes the bake is right on. But I think the orange could be a little stronger.”

Scorpia blushed just so that she seemed to be made solely of burgundy carapace. Clearly pleased all the way down to her sturdy bakers clogs she smiled brightly at Perfuma.

Adora realised that she was going to be late, and quietly and as relaxed as she could and slipped out form the bakery and broke into a sprint. 


	2. Bath Bombs and Suspicious Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora goes to work at the bath store (which is totally not Lush haha what do you mean?) and tries to survive a very normal encounter with a very pretty girl. Glimmer has found a small angry friend. Adora is none to pleased when she finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hi! Adora meets Catra in this one so, progress is being made folks. There are notes at the end of the chapter to explain some stuff if you'd like <]:o Also hey, I'm glad you're alive and you deserve to have good things.
> 
> Songs I listened to whilst writing:  
> 'Talk Too Much' COIN  
> 'Rebel Rebel' David Bowie  
> 'New Best Friend' Neon Trees
> 
> Hey Ava. I love you.

When Adora pushed open the door to the bath store with its adorably annoying bell she was only ten minutes late.

Mermista was not pleased. Her face which was always bored had a slight tint of annoyance and Seahawk was there. So. All in all, Adora was screwed.

She plastered on her best apologetic smile and Mermista sighed dramatically and flung a only slightly stained apron at her.

“Get shelving Adora.”

The store itself was small in a comfortable way, there was fake and real greenery tucked into every crevice not already stuffed with neatly handwritten cards and rows and rows of bath products. All smells and scents, all colours and shapes. Adora really loved the atmosphere of magic it gave off, she purposely walked past the vanilla section because what can she say, she has a weakness.

“Get. Shelving. Adora.”

Right. Yes, being a responsible employee and all that.

Hauling a crate off the stack she glanced in and saw a new product which was labelled something like ‘luxury’ or ‘royalty’. They were a bath bomb/bath melt combo which was incredible first off but then they’re also crazy decadent. Gold glitter, swirling yellows, the gentle smell of honey cut with a sharp note of lemon. She leant against a stack of crates thinking of how cool it would look in the water, imagined the smell, the feeling of her body loosening up in the heat. She then remembered she was doing something important.

Luckily, Mermista hadn’t noticed, or she hadn’t cared. Adora was just grateful she wasn’t caught. The karma of that was glitter got all over her, she knew she had some in her hair, knew she had some on her forearms and apron and was 80% sure she had some swiped across her cheekbones and chin. Hopefully she looked like a tasteful mermaid and not like a kids craft project.

-

A couple hours into her shift Seahawk began running a broom across the wooden floors with such velocity that it really was better off to avoid him entirely, thus Adora sat on the counter. She smoothed out tissue paper which was one of the most oddly satisfying things to do in the entire store. The sound of the crinkles all smoothing out, the feeling of it against her fingers. Great stuff. She almost didn’t notice the way he careened past her eyes flashing with a scary level of determination and bloodlust.

‘Talk Too Much’ By COIN came on over the speakers, which were relatively quiet but Adora was finetuned to that song like a broken radio. She just can’t not dance to it. Seahawk was still on a rampage and thus a compromise. Cross legged, smoothing paper on her knee, lip-syncing, occasionally throwing in some hand gestures and tasteful grooves. It was probably the most relaxed she’s been in a while.

The door opens with a lot more force than is usually applied to a bath store door, and so Adora looks up, and Seahawk stops running. Mermista stops smiling after him.

Of course, of course it is a pretty girl because honestly when does Adora ever catch a break from falling in love with strangers. She’s a cat-hybrid which is already adorable, but she’s also wrapped head to toe in warm layers. Adora straight up short circuits and is halfway surprised that she didn’t turn into She-Ra from how fast her heartbeat picks up.

It’s a damm good thing that Seahawk sees her plight and knocks her shoulder with the broom. Stupid lesbian brain always being inconvenient.

“Yeah…” She slid off the counter and straightened her apron.

The girl watched all of this with a slightly condescending tilt to her head.

Adora had no idea how she managed it.

“Hey welcome, how can I help?” She amped up her tone but self-consciously swiped glitter off her face.

The girl narrowed her eyes, which were crazy captivating both a strong solid blue. The exact colour of the ocean. Adora nearly died.

“I’m just looking for something for my mate” Her voice was slightly raspy and quiet.

Mermista barely covered an annoyed huff when another customer walked in, clueless and clearly needing assistance.

“Right, so, let’s talk particulars, do you know their skin type? Things they like? Scents no scents things like that?” Adora’s brain was already spinning.

“Well, she bakes, and enjoys flowers? I don’t really know her skin type but she complains about dry skin so maybe that’s helpful?” Doubt wormed its way into her words. From her face Adora realised that this was very much her first time in a bath store. No matter.

Adora nodded along walking slowly amongst the stacks leading the girl around who was casting a doubtful eye on everything in the store.

“Sweet as, maybe…” She plucked a plain looking bath melt from a shelf, it had flecks of vanilla bean running through it. One of Adora’s personal favourites. “Yeah give this a look, it’s a bit on the simple side but from what I know she won’t mind too much, it’s vanilla a personal fave.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, moisturising too which is perfect obviously for people with dry skin.” Adora leant against the display and saw the concern that got snared in the girl’s eyes but Adora was a ratbag and Mermista loved her, so any broken product wasn’t too dramatic.

“The other alternative is perhaps something like….” She moved to another part of the store, neatly avoiding Mermista and her customer.

But not Seahawk.

“How’s our resident psychic?”

Adora levelled a glare at him then turned a softer expression to the girl.

“Yeah nah, not psychic.”

“She’s just being humble our dear Adora~ is a master at figuring out exactly what a customer needs with little information, she’s our best assistant.” Seahawk hooked an arm around her shoulders and Adora laughed.

“Seahawk you can waste my time all you like but not our customers” She lightly punched his arm and he rubbed the spot while bowing deeply.

“My apologies O’BathWitch”

Adora shooed him and checked to make sure the girl hadn’t scarpered.

“Sorry about him he’s an idiot. This is what I wanted to show you.”

It was a plain display of bath bombs, all various pastel shades packed into boxes filled with straw. The girl leant over them slightly even picking up the blue one and turning it over in her hands like it was a tiny globe.

“Ah, that one is very nice, turns the water blue so it’s like you’re in 90’s anime water. Good stuff.”

The girl placed it back carefully, but in the way you do when something catches your eye. Adora was feeling very confident that this was going to go well. Adora described the smells and properties of all the different colours as the girl continued to pick things up and examine them.

“So.. what are we thinking?” She leant against the boxes again.

“Really that you’re going to break something.” Her voice was a shade more confident and Adora smiled.

“Bold of you to assume I haven’t already.”

“Oh no I knew that, also… where did the glitter come from?”

Adora tucked a stray chunk of hair that had slipped from her ponytail behind her ear and nodded her head towards the golden shelf filled with anything gold and sparkly.

“That.”

“Ah.”

“Mhm.”

They didn’t talk after that and Adora was fine with it, it was always interesting to see how people reacted to the store for the first time, how they weaved their way around, what they lingered at, what they stopped to smell. What they hurried by. And maybe just maybe, she enjoyed watching how emotive the girl was, her tail swishing slightly, her ears folding back, it all betrayed her exact emotions.

“You’re a disaster.” Mermista teased, sidling up to her mercifully out of earshot of the girl.

Adora, affronted blew air at her face.

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” Mermista said

“You’re not supposed to acknowledge it! and she’s still here? So shut up?”

Mermista raised an eyebrow at her. Adora raised both in retaliation.

“She’s coming up to the counter you better go sort that out.”

“Oh honestly -“ She snapped but Mermista had already attached herself to another customer.

Bumping her hip painfully against the counter Adora sucked in a breath. The girl winced.

“I do it all the time, she’ll be right. what did you settle on?” Not so subtly Adora rubbed the sore spot while the girl gently placed the vanilla bath melt and a pale pink bath bomb on the counter.

“excellent choice.”

She wrapped it up nicely and mentally filed away just how pretty this stranger was, her hair which was thick and brown twisted into a fat braid, her body which somehow conveyed the aura of being a lot taller than she was, her eyes and how well that bath bomb matched them. Her brain barely registered when she’d paid and Adora handed over her things.

The door chimed shut and Adora helped the next person in line.

-

“How’s work” Glimmer didn’t bother with small talk unless in the presence of people who were easier to deal with bored, which meant that Mermista had flicked her a message.

Adora feigned innocence. “Work is fine.. Smells good as always, Oh! There’s this new golden bath bomb/melt thing that is really cool I so wanna try it but I do not have the cash to splash right now.”

Adora was just wrapping up her shift with Seahawk who was being a brat about helping her move literally anything over 2 kgs. Her phone was firmly lodged between her ear and shoulder as she glared at him.

“Although that is interesting, I was more meaning a certain customer that entered your fine establishment.”

Oh. Adora was going to kill Mermista.

“What did she tell you.”

“Nothing.”

Seahawk began singing loudly to a song she’d never heard, the backroom now contaminated she settled herself by the counter examining her nails. Shit, they needed to be re-done soon.

“Was it Seahawk?” her tone was dangerously calm.

“No.”

“So you admit you were told some things about some people.”

“Fuck.”

“Out with it.”

“She said there was a cute girl and that you were a mess.”

“Alright, rude, factual, but rude.”

“HA!” Glimmers laugh was one of Adora’s favourite sounds, it was joy, perfect unaltered joy. She laughed with her whole body, head thrown back nose scrunched up, it was a whole production and Adora loved it. She could seriously picture her now, probably in her favourite pastel purple hoodie, lounging around on her bed laptop in front of her with un-finished work lurking.

“Yes yes it’s funny as. I didn’t make a total fool of myself though! Didn’t knock anything over, didn’t stumble over my words, generally was a functioning person! Which is a total win in my book.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

“So anyway, you aren’t going out tonight are you?”

Adora made a face and pushed her palm against the counter, forcing all her emotions through her body keeping them well clear of her voice.

“I was thinking about it.”

Glimmer didn’t respond, it was a tired conversation. Glimmer hated that Adora couldn’t sleep the whole night through. Adora hated that Glimmer worried.

“Adora.”

“I know, I know.” She’d seriously been trying to tackle this insomnia, tried things like meditation, breathing, distraction. Falling asleep to tv shows and movies, which was the only thing that made an immediate difference. She’d been following advice from her therapist because obviously sleep is literally the foundation of your well-being.

It was just hard, and harder to accept that there was no magic quick fix for anything. It’s a journey, but it doesn’t make the bumps in the road smaller.

Adora refused to lie to Glimmer, to Bow to anyone really. It sucked a lot of the time, threw off the balance of casual conversations and simple greetings. But they deserved the truth about how she was doing, and it helped. Allowing herself to be coddled and cheered up really helped. She just wished and wished that it wasn’t so hard.

“I’ll see you at home, we still on for Shortland Street?”

“Obviously. I’m addicted and you know it.”

They hung up and Adora tried to reclaim her happy mood with minimal success.

-

As she left she let David Bowie untangle all her feelings, somehow his music was very good for that, no matter what mood she was in it managed to fit.

Bow was still slaving away and so wasn’t in the flat when Adora trudged in. Glimmer was and intercepted her bad vibes at the door.

“Absolutely not the vibes are disgusting right now.” Her face was serious, but her tone had slipped into a humorous overly gruff note.

Glimmer grabbed her shoulders and directed her firmly towards the couch, Adora let herself be pushed and watched while Glimmer made it her life’s mission to make the perfect cup of hot chocolate. Despite it being from a powder.

Adora hated whenever she made hot chocolate the way Glimmer did but by some kind of crazy friendship magic, when Glimmer made her devils drink it was nice.

She used hot water. The entire process went against Adora’s morals, first, there was a m i n i m a l amount of powder in the cup, then the barest splash of milk, then it was all stirred vigorously to the point of it splashing out of the cup. Finally, the cup is filled to the brim with boiling water and placed into Adora’s hands. Which just about burn off since an integral part of your hands not falling off is the presence of milk.

They didn’t end up immediately watching Shortland Street, a terrible soap opera that’s supposed to be a medical drama but honestly is just murder mystery at this point. Instead Glimmer snatched the remote and flicked on Carmen Sandiego, which was an all time favourite of theirs and required no brainpower but was still very entertaining to watch.

It also meant Adora got to enjoy Glimmer being incredibly Bi, which was always a pleasure to witness since it was a very loud and determined thing.

“It is honestly unfair, like I know that he’s an objectively bad person working for vile and all but he’s also really hot?”

“I would die for Ivy and that’s not an understatement honestly she’s lovely.”

Adora raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

“Ok I know I say this every time we re-watch it but honestly this is very low-key queer like maybe I’m just so aggressively head cannoning that it’s preventing me from seeing the truth but this is high-key gay right? Like? This is very gay.”

And other such comments which made Adora roll her eyes, though she was a mess, the characters were literally animated. She had some control.

She then realised that Glimmer was very good what she did. She didn’t feel great but she felt like it was okay. In leu of a sappy conversation Adora repaid Glimmer by talking about bath store girl.

“That girl at the shop was crazy pretty though and it’s honestly rude, she’s really living rent free in my head and it’s straight up unfair.”

Glimmer was just about to respond but a loud yowl echoed through the flat, her eyes immediately cut to a lump under a blanket that Adora had just assumed was a pillow.

“Glimmer. What. Was. That.”

“Okay.. So.. like, don’t hate me? We’re best friends and all that?”

She got up and flicked the blanket off to reveal a scrawny, dirty scrap of an animal, it’s fur was matted and it’s ears twitched as it prepared to yowl again.

“GLIMMER WHY IS THERE A CAT IN THE FLAT?” Adora practically climbed on top of the couch’s headrest.

“SORRY” Glimmer stood gesturing wildly like that would convince her that this wasn’t insane.

Adora took a breath. Another. One more.

“Okay, so you have a cat, that’s cool and fine and normal yup. Right, rad, okay.” Her brain worked trying to process all the implications. “How long had it been here and why haven’t you cleaned it?”

“I found him shortly before you came and so I fed it.. like, not cat food? But he seemed to like it.. But then you showed up and you were sad and I thought meeting a cat right off the bat would’ve been bad?”

Adora pinched the bridge of her nose feeling very much like Bow who was the usual ‘adult’ in the house.

“Give it a bath? I’ll sort out some acutal cat food I think.”

Glimmer went to fiddle with the hot and cold water taps to fill the bath. The cat didn’t seem to care, it just settled itself on the wooden floor and stared Adora down with wide cold blue eyes.

“I should call Bow...” Adora fished out her phone from the couch cushions and did just that.

-

“You’ve got a what?”

“A cat, he gouged marks into our door, screamed until we gave it a bath which it hated just so we're clear. So far he hasn’t destroyed any more furniture so.. I guess he's staying?”

“Adora are you aware of how much effort it is to take care of a cat? Have you been doing research?”

“Yes. No. kind of? I’m at the research stage I just came back from getting actual cat food.” Her laptop which rested on her legs was taking an archaically long time to load one dumb website.

“Okay, well I’m still at work and will be here for a while but thinks seriously about if you can keep it, don’t mistreat it because you think you handle taking care of a cat okay?”

“I know, I know, I promise I’m taking this seriously. So is Glimmer who was the crazy one who found him.”

-

The cat glared at her from where it had curled up on a pillow that had been discarded on the floor, it was very upset at Glimmer for giving it a bath and since Adora was also a human it was upset with her too.

“Dude I fed you! I went to the dairy in the rain and got you generic cat food since I don’t know how old you are, and you ate it! The fact that you’re mad at me is appalling.”

“Adora it’s a cat. You can’t make it like you.”

“Shut up.”

The cat flicked its tail so it rested under its nose, everything about it screamed disdain. Adora was going to make that cat her best friend, forget saving lives and protecting the community or whatever. This stubborn cat was going to be her friend and would sit on her lap while she watched tv and then it would leave without warning and Adora would hate it but respect the cat and it would be great.

“Wait- Glimmer what happened at the meeting that I missed? Wasn’t that a thing?”

Glimmer got up.

“We need more hot chocolate. And biscuits I think. Yes. We have mint slices don’t we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes Catra is wearing coloured contacts she does has one (1) braincell. Shoutout to google docs and A03's spell check bc it refuses to accept that my kiwi spelling is valid, you can pry the 'u' from colour out of my cold dead hands thanks. Also watch Carmen Sandiego it's great, don't watch Shortland Street it isn't great. Oh and I am 100% Glimmer in terms of hot chocolate what can I say I like barely flavoured water.


	3. Trouble and Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra thinks, runs, fights, thinks, repeat. Doesn't think about anything apart from a new strategy, about how to defeat The Rebellion, how to be a better friend, how to not hurt people, how to hurt them more, how to survive and how to do more than that. She 100% does not think about a blonde girl from a fantastic smelling store, it's cold outside and Catra's on the warpath.
> 
> hehe Catra POV chapter go brr  
> Double-Trouble is there because A: yes and B: my fingers itch to write enby folk okay??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hi! So yes Catra chapter because I felt it was needed idk disaster gay go brr y'know? Again many many thanks to Ava for being cool and reading this stuff before I post it. hopefully it isn't tonal whiplash I just want the chapters to not be overwhelmingly sad because that makes me sad.
> 
> Songs are literally anything by Bastille or Lorde because I that is peak Catra music. I feel like Bastille is for 'on the hunt' and Lorde is for 'I am merely a cat with a scarf do not interact'
> 
> Apologies if there are any name mistakes, oddly enough Word doesn't recognise Netossa and Spinnerella as 'normal' names so-

Catra held the paper bag inside her jacket close to her skin. Right now, it didn’t matter that she was colder than a block of ice, didn’t matter that it was highly dangerous to bike with one hand in the slippery cold, because she was not under any circumstances going to let this package get at all damaged. Goose-bumps rippled up and down her arms, making the thin coating of fur stand right on end.

Her thoughts kept stumbling back to the girl in the stupid bath store, her and her annoying friends, because they weren’t just colleagues, they were friends, and they weren’t annoying either. They were nice. Either way it was a massive slip up, as soon as she walked in, she realised her tectonic mistake.

The smells of everything were so dizzying, under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have allowed herself to dally so long. Of course, she had to inspect everything to make sure Scorpia got the best of what they had to offer and what her meagre funds could provide but that really didn’t mean she had to follow the girl with her seemingly perfect blonde hair around. Seriously how did anyone get it _that_ shiny? It really didn’t mean that she had to stare so obviously at the disaster of glitter all over her skin, and how the light bounced off it and her broad absolute mega-watt smile. It definitely didn’t mean she wanted nothing more than to go back.

The rain had stopped but that really did not make a difference at all since the wind was still fierce, water splashed into her shoes and soaked into her pant legs. Oh, how she detested winter. July really was the worst month of the year. All this was about to be worth it though. Catra knew for a fact that Scorpia was at The Fright Zone, which was what they affectionately called their living situation.

She carefully wheeled her bike to the side of the re-purposed hotel and locked it to the meagre chain-link fence section that separated them from a suspicious looking concrete structure which she knew from investigation was actually just where more intelligent people went to check that the power was working for the block.

They’d put a fresh lick of paint on the exterior of the old hotel but even though it was a cheery kind of creamy white it really didn’t distract from just how ugly it was. Either way, it was dry and it was a place to eat and sleep. It also had Scorpia the literal one good thing to ever walk in and out of that place.

The front door was needlessly heavy but that was no match for Catra’s pure determination. She hauled it open.

Catra scuffed off her shoes. The entry way was barely above freezing but she was not about to wear shoes for one more minute. All her fur fluffed out in retaliation and she blatantly ignored the looks she got from other recruits as they stopped talking to stare at her in their various states of dripping wet.

Catra practically sprinted up the stairs, her body finally clicking into a rhythm as she took the stairs two at a time, scratching fresh lines into hopelessly shredded wood.

She was running out of time Scorpia would be so close to taking her evening bath and she had to had to get this to her before that. Nothing nice lasted long here, you raise a house of thieves without giving them any kind of guidance apart from ‘don’t murder people please’ and ‘hey here’s how to not get caught’ it will be savage. She would not let another thing get ruined to this ugly, ugly place.

She skidded to a stop in front of the door to their floors common room, chest heaving. Hopefully, she wasn’t too late.

She wasn’t. Scorpia was standing watching a jug boil completely transfixed.

“Hey Scorpia.” Catra unwound her comically long scarf which really wasn’t the most tasteful thing created but A: It was made by Scorpia when she had her knitting phase and B: it kept her warm.

“Oh! hey Catra! I was just making some tea, y’know how it is, gotta keep warm… Hey you’re looking pretty cold do you want a cup?” Her voice was bright and filled the room even the rotting cabinets seemed more stable when she talked.

“I think I could swing that, my only requirements are-“

“I know!” She waved her claw in Catras direction to shush her. Anybody else and Catra would’ve broken their fingers.

She’d never ever admit it but Catra loved when it was just them, she’d spent so many afternoons sitting either on a table or on the infinitesimal space on the counter, practically falling into the sink just watching as Scorpia hummed and talked gently to herself.

Sometimes it made her irreversibly angry, the fact that Scopria was even here. Some people chose to come to The Fright Zone, chose to come and train and be apart of The Horde. She knew in her bones that Scorpia was not one of those people. Sometimes Catra couldn’t stand the idea of anything hurting her. That’s when she got cruel, when she unsheathed her claws and turned bitterly sharp words on her. She always regretted it but somehow, she couldn’t stop, or apologise, a lovely cycle that kept her up at night. Tonight though, her thoughts weren’t armed with teeth and she just lazily examined how utterly dirty the common room was. She sneered at it. Squalor

“Here.” Scorpia nudged a cup across the linoleum and Catra picked it up trying not to look like she was cradling it too much. She was thinking about the sharp press of the corner of the bag into her side but would never be thinking about the girl again. Adora. The girl Adora, and how warm that store was, and how blanketly safe it all felt.

“Whatcha thinking about? You’ve got your happy smile out.” Scorpia said.

“I do not have a happy smile.” Though she could feel it creeping over her face.

“You do, now tell me before I absolutely die of anticipation best friend!”

“Okay, okay, okay.”

Catra put down her cup and brought out the bag resting it on her lap, letting Scorpia see what it was, what the tissue paper and logo meant.

Her face absolutely lit up. Catra held it out to her refusing to make eye contact.

Scorpia nearly couldn’t take it for how much shock rooted her in place.

Catra rolled her eyes feeling the heat of a blush crawling across her face.

“Catra! You didn’t have to do this!”

“Yeah, whatever, I don’t know you just take a lot of baths and I know you like this kinda stuff it’s not a big deal.” Catra refused to even look at Scorpia.

She pushed off the counter only barely remembering to grab her tea before stalking out of the room, not entirely with grace. It didn’t affect Scorpia’s unchained delight tough.

Catra was wearing a clean suit for the first-time a while, not her fault. Shadow-Weaver just adored forcing her to go out every night, mostly just to guide around new recruits or shadow them and make sure that they weren’t being stupid. The amount of times she’d have to intervene someone tailing a newbie were more than she could count. It wasn’t hard work per say, but it was still work. It still forced her to run on less and less sleep. It still sucked.

Being a Force Captain was the _most_ boring thing she’d ever done, before she was Force Captain she could do whatever, they didn’t really care as long as she didn’t get underneath anyone’s feet but now they cared what she did and at what times she did it.

Pacing in the entry way she waited. Her phone told her it was 5˚C which was utterly unforgivable. This was ‘supposed’ to be her day off, the one day a week where Shadow weaver couldn’t magically decide there was an important errand to run. Of course, the day Shadow-Weaver actually cared about her health was the day she laughed without all the malice.

She almost didn’t notice the recruit slip into the hall. It was Double-Trouble, Catra had mixed feelings about the shapeshifter. A lot of those feelings were the slimy distrust kind.

“Oh, they paired me with the kitty cat.”

Catra bared her teeth. “I’m just here to clean up your mess.”

They narrowed their eyes but didn’t say anything.

“Let’s move.” She didn’t wait to hear if they were following her.

Neither of them talked the entire time as they walked amongst the roof-tops, it was eerily silent but that’s how Etheria was in the winter-time, some cities bustled with life year-round but Etheria had the good sense to bundle up and wait out huge cold spells. Naturally there were the few hundred people every night who braved the cold. The trade of was they were far too preoccupied to look up at the rooftops.

Odd thing that, how nobody ever looked up. They could walk by a building a thousand times and only once look up and see the plants spilling out of the second story window. Odd how they never think to do it again.

Her breath hurt every single time she inhaled, she could almost imagine the ice crystals forming in her lungs, like a geode. Why did anybody think it was a good idea to do evil things in the cold, you need to be warm to be able to effectively escape, basic knowledge.

The building dropped steeply, and Double-Trouble leant far too confidently over the edge.

“Is this where you fucked up?” Catra said.

Their eyes glowed angrily.

“Oh, come off it, it was your fault.”

They didn’t dignify any of it with a response instead jumping down onto a fire escape.

“Dra-ma.”

Catra stayed on the roof, this was as far as she was entitled to go. This was their final test to see whether they were any good at what they did. If they messed up again the Horde wouldn’t even look at them. She was just there to make sure they didn’t get any help. All she knew about their mission was that they were to lead and trap two Rebellion heroes, simple stuff, they didn’t even have to keep them captured.

She pulled out her phone, struggling to even open it, another reason why you need to be warm, fingerprint recognition doesn’t work on ice. Password painstakingly typed in she messaged Scorpia just a few Catra brand angry remarks about the cold and how tired she was.

Eventually her phone stopped responding to her fingers, so she just turned it off and tucked it inside a secret pocket in her suit that took her months to figure out even existed.

The most brilliant idea came to her. Coffee. She could drink coffee. Warmth, energy literally no faults.

She listened carefully while leaning out over the edge trying to ignore how her stomach dropped. Nothing. No screams, no sounds of fighting or powers being used.

Catra returned to her rooftop vigilance with a steaming cup of coffee which she stole because honestly if she turned up to any establishment worth heir salt in her current garb, they wouldn’t serve her, instead call the cops, or the Rebellion whichever they trusted more. Oh, and the small factor that she didn’t have any money to purchase a coffee would throw a spanner in the works.

A deafening crash echoed out through the street and she let out a flurry of complicated and compound curses, putting down her cup she swung down on the fire escape.

As she climbed down the side of the building her ears flicked back and forth trying to pinpoint where the noise came from. Left, left down? No left up. Her joints felt like blocks of concrete as she pried open windows and leapt from ledge to ledge. Hauling herself over the railing of a balcony he managed to locate that green skinned idiot.

The abandoned buildings window gave, and her body slipped in relatively quietly not that that would’ve mattered with the racket still being made. She gouged claw marks into the wallpaper enjoying the satisfying rip of it, each centimetre that peeled away building a humming energy in her skin.

“Honestly children keep it down, we don’t want to wake the neighbours.” Her voice cut through all the noise and every party turned around.

Ah. Catra immediately clocked Netossa and Spinnerella, an adorable couple, formidable fighting pair. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be as boring as she’d first assumed.

Double-Trouble did not look pleased to see her, like she cared at all what they thought. She was saving their lime green tail after all.

“What did you do you idiot?” She snapped at them.

They were about to reply but Netossa had very much not forgotten that they were mid battle and threw one of her nets in their direction. Catra skidded out of the way, her claws tearing up the carpet in neat rows.

She leaped over a wave of air set to topple her the rush of wind deafening. She managed to get scratches along Netossa’s side as she tumbled by. Netossa hissed and threw a net blindly as she cradled her wound.

_Shit._

She hit the ground. Hard. For a moment all she could feel was a white wall of thought as the shock rolled through her.

A blur of green collided with Netossa, Catra kicked with her legs trying to tear the glowing webbing apart, it refused to give. A growl tore from her throat.

Double-Trouble shape-shifted, their form towering over Netossa as they grabbed her forearms trying to twist her arms, she would not be intimidated and pushed back with just as much force.

Catra still trapped struggled with the netting as Spinnerella suspended her in the air, she yelled as another blast of wind set to push Double-Trouble away from her wife.

 _I swear if I die because of some dumb glowing net I will actually-_ Her claws tore through the web creating a hole wide enough for her to fall out of. When she came right-side up she tackled Spinnerella barely dodging the green and blue blur wrestling on the floor.

Spinnerella made a soft ‘oof’ sound as the air was knocked out of her, Catra was already pivoting and got an iron grip around Netossa’s ankle, dragging her off Double-Trouble.

“Let’s move!” Catra didn’t wait to see if they were following her as she ducked back through the window.

A blur of movement followed them out sticking the hole of the open window closed. That suited Catra just fine not like she was going to hang around any longer.

Eventually they both came to a stop on the rooftop they were at originally, the one with a now ice-cold cup of coffee sitting on the air-conditioning unit.

Both of them waited a moment to catch their respective breath. Catra felt so alive and so ready to destroy something. Every nerve was on fire it made her skin itch.

“Okay what was that? Did you have a plan? What the goal? Get beaten up because you were well on the way to that.” She didn’t try to mask her anger.

Double-Trouble bared their teeth.

“I had it handled kitten, no need to get so upset you just caught me at a delicate time.”

“Oh! A delicate time huh!” She shot out a hand and traced a thin line on their arm. “Do not call me kitten.”

Their eyes narrowed slightly with the sting of it, but they kept their tone cool.

“I had it under control.”

Catra snarled. She stalked up to them getting right in their personal space eyes flashing.

“Did you? If I hadn’t shown up, you’d be in The Rebellions hold don’t even try to spin that tale of having anything under control.”

Catching herself she stilled her thrashing tail and moved away.

“I really don’t have time to deal with you so how about you figure out how you’re going to tell Shadow-weaver that you’re packing up your shit and getting out of The Fright Zone without getting killed.”

Double-Trouble didn’t say anything as she left them on the rooftop. She wouldn’t even be surprised if her skin was giving off steam at this point. She was so absolutely done.

It took her the entire run/climb back to calm down enough to even consider talking to Scoripia. Not that she’d be awake.

Exhausted from the fight her whole body ached. She was probably supposed to do something like ‘report’. She didn’t care. New scrapes and bruises bloomed on her skin.

“Yeah! That’s how I feel too! I thought it was really cool! Did you see the- Oh hey Catra!” Scorpia was sitting in the kitchenette area and had her phone on speaker. A soft feminine voice albeit slightly robotic came from the phone.

“Oh, okay, goodbye Scorpia I’ll see you soon.”

Scorpia waved. Then realised the other person couldn’t see her, by the time she realised though she’d been hung up on.

Catra had never heard the voice on the phone, or at least she couldn’t place it but whoever kept Scorpia up this late was bound to be important.

“Are you up late or early?” Catra opened a cabinet door, the paint practically flaking off in her palms.

“Oh, early.” Scorpia didn’t make eye contact though.

She slammed the door closed. Then opened it, and slammed it again just for effect.

Scorpia didn’t look too concerned with the noise but did send a glance towards the doorway. Nobody hollered at them.

“Anyway, I should go to bed- I mean go like to my room which is my bedroom and so therefore my bed is in there, but I don’t mean like- go _to_ bed, like back to sleep- Y’know what? I’m just going to go.” An embarrassed flush matched her words as Scorpia scraped back her chair, winced and then left the room.

Catra just raised her eyebrows. She probably should’ve thought harder about that, who the caller was etc, etc. She was also exhausted.

Dawn crawled up the metal skyline as half her toothbrush stuck out of her mouth, a nasty combo of spit and toothpaste froth beading on the end. She sat in the window; legs pressed against her bed balanced just so to get the best angle as she wrangled with bandages.

First, antiseptic cream got smeared over any cuts or abrasions, nothing major thankfully, then as the sections dried, plasters and Vaseline got propped by her thigh. She rubbed just enough in to make her skin shiny without making it slick, petroleum jelly was relatively expensive when you need it so often, it also meant that the plasters would actually stick.

Catra had a delicate collection of plasters, the thin colourful but useless plasters that she accumulated out of desperation and needing to ration out the better, more useful, although dull heavy brown ones. They were woven and worked wonderfully but there were way less in a box. If she wanted, she could re-wallpaper her room with how many boxes she went through.

By the time she had gone through all that and spat disdainfully out the window her toothpaste concoction, the sun had well and truly risen.

She delicately climbed into bed, her cuts and bruises juts starting to reach that pain threshold of ‘unignorable’. Catra just stared at the ceiling, feeling mixed up. She hadn’t even showered yet. Gross. Showering made her think of Adora, in like a ‘Adora sells bath stuff and smells really nice and is really nice’ kind of way. _When did she have time to go back? How did she convince Shadow-Weaver to let her go? Where would she get the money, she couldn’t just… go into the store and not buy anything? Right?_

Catra folded her pillow over her head, ignoring how it uncomfortably folded her ears.

That didn’t stop her from falling asleep to warm, soft smells and blonde hair sparkling with glitter.


	4. Conversations and Transforamtions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer forms a plan to both help the Rebellion and help everyone get a break from constantly saving the city. Adora the loyal soldier goes forth to complete her plan, she runs into trouble and is most definitely going to be late for class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry for not updating in a while 2020 has got everyone in all sorts of states, but here is another chapter, I won't make promises about when the next one will be. Anyway hope your 2020 isn't a complete disaster. 
> 
> Songs I listened to:  
> Cannibal Queen - Miniature Tigers  
> Secret Agent Man- DEVO  
> The Man From The Daily Mail -Blackthorn
> 
> Hey Ava. I see you.

“It’s the Horde they’re getting increasingly more organised and well, targeted. And we sort of discussed options.”

The cat didn’t seem to like whatever options Glimmer was talking about and it skittered away from them.

“Not good options?” Adora guessed.

“Well, dramatic options for sure, y’know we were just thinking that perhaps a bunch of uni students fighting off a major crime syndicate is a dumb idea.”

Adora opened her mouth, Glimmer cut her off.

“No- I mean obviously us stopping our work is stupid and of course you’d still be She-Ra no one is going to take that away from you, but certainly I can’t do uni and run the Rebellion it’s just too much,” Glimmer scooped the cat back up onto her lap. “it was fine at the beginning because It was new and there weren’t as many on either side, now?” She shook her head slightly.

“So, what are you saying.” Adora had to take a handful of biscuits to stop feeling angry or hurt even though that’s what Glimmer had just explained she _shouldn’t_ be feeling.

Glimmer pretended that she didn’t see the movement.

“I’m saying that I think we have to consider making a formal alliance.”

“I thought we already had an alliance that’s what all us heroes are in the Rebellion for?”

Glimmer waved her hand. “Yeah kinda but like I said this would be formal and we’d need to talk to my parents and my aunt. I know that my aunt will be on board…” She trailed off. Adora would’ve too.

“No of course, do you know more or is this like a sort of half-baked idea.”

“Consider it dough.”

“Hmm.”

Glimmer finished off the packet of biscuits and checked her phone.

“Bow should be home soon, any ideas?”

“UNO?” Adora said only slightly too loud.

Glimmer smiled slowly and maliciously.

It was an old, old, old, deck of cards that both preferred and knew so well, despite it’s age the card themselves were pristine, only worn edges and one or two stains marred them.

Neither of them knew how to play ‘proper’ uno where you score to 500 and every time Adora glanced over the rules (like they would’ve changed) she felt ever so slightly like she should learn.

Adora, Bow and literally anybody else who played any kind of card game with Glimmer detested the way she dealt. It had no pattern, no rhyme or reason it was just shockingly fast, slippery, and altogether terrifying. She laid down card after card despite there being only two of them, she still somehow made it uncomfortable.

Glimmer relished in this and Adora knew that because she told them and because every single time any of them made a comment or gave any kind of physical reaction, she’d smile so terribly it was almost cruel.

After several disappointing and angry games which Adora lost. Bow came through the door.

“Hey, hey how’s it all going?”

“Glimmer is a liar and a cheat, and I will never forget how she has slighted me.”

Because Bow was long immune to Adora he just took it with a slight nod and kissed Glimmer hello.

“Ew but okay.”

“Adora shut up you’re just mad because you’re single.” Glimmer said.

“Y’know aren’t you supposed to be kind to me?”

“When have I ever done what I’m supposed to?”

Adora relented and finished packing up the UNO cards.

\---

Bow had recharged sufficiently to care about his surroundings and poked his head up from where he was laying on the couch.

“Who are we trying to get on board and how are we doing this? We need to form a formal alliance right? So, who are we even forming it with.”

Bow tapped the side of his jaw thoughtfully. “Well I think all the folk we have on our side currently, y’know? Mermista, Netossa, Spinnerella, etc?”

“Bow’s right, those are definitely the people we need to get on side, and plus a few others who are our allies but we need them to be more active. People like Perfuma, Entraptna and Frosta.”

Adora frowned. “Frosta isn’t she a bit young?”

Glimmer laughed. “Don’t let her hear you say that, and while yes that may be so she was the one who actually gave me this idea in the first place, we really need her family on side, and though I hate to say it her family desperately want her somewhere stable and out of their hair.”

“Isn’t the Rebellion the opposite of a stable environment?” Bow said.

Glimmer shrugged. “We have a roughish charm.”

Bow gave a thumbs up.

Adora nodded her brain working to fit all the pieces together.

“So, what, first you contact your parents, and your aunt then you send us out to try and recruit the others?”

Glimmer nodded. “That was the direction I was thinking.”

Bow smiled “Cool beans, let us know once you’ve got them on board and I’ll take Entraptna, Netossa and Spinnerella, you can take Perfuma, Mermista and Frosta.”

Adora stuck out a fist, Bow knocked his own against it.

“It’s a plan.”

\---

Adora woke in the morning running on less sleep than she should be, but she’d gotten a essay written that she needed to for today’s classes so really she was doing a lot better than expected.

Glimmer and Bow weren’t awake which suited her fine. Earbuds in she danced her way through making breakfast, nothing complicated, porridge which made Glimmer scrunch her face up, she thought it was akin to slop. It was plain Adora found it eternally comforting.

Her phone updated her on all the news, another Horde attack which made her frown and remember why she shouldn’t look at the news first thing in the morning. It really killed the vibe.

“Good morning”

Adora pulled out her headphones and turned to face Bow.

“I didn’t think you’d be awake so early.” She said.

“Neither me you.”

“What?”

“Dude I am very tired language doesn’t work this early.” Adora sympathised heavily with that.

“I didn’t think you have classes this early though?”

Bow flicked on the jug and grimaced into an unwashed mug.

“I don’t normally but just like you and Glimmer I am very behind with my work. Also weren’t you supposed to sort this out?” He waved a hand at all the dirty dishes.

Adora put on her best innocent face. “I was?”

“ADORA.”

“Yes?”

Bow dragged a hand over his face and shook his head. She felt mildly guilty.

“I’m going out soon by the way, I have classes, but I need to stop by The Flower Field, y’know The Bakery™ since Scorpia is going to be there.”

“Lies you just want a vanilla milkshake.”

“Perhaps.”

“Wait, Scorpia she isn’t someone we’re trying to work with.”

Adora folded the corner of a brochure about ‘magic turmeric pills for weight loss’

“I know.”

Bow eyed her curiously but didn’t push it.

She checked the time. Glimmer wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon, so she said goodbye to Bow, checked she had her housekey and sword, y’know casual hero things. Then left for the bakery.

\---

“Hey Adora!” Scorpia called out.

Adora couldn’t see her but that wasn’t a surprise the bakery was fairly busy which wasn’t an entire surprise because come on. The food was awesome, the décor was awesome, the people were awesome. Why wouldn’t you come?

Adora took a seat and watched as Perfuma appeared from behind an ornate display of greenery.

She knew it would be easy to get Pefuma on board that woman just exuded a willingness to help and was always asking if there was more that she could do to help the Rebellion. All it’d take was a quick conversation. Adora waved her down.

“Hey Perfuma!”

“Hello Adora!” She took a seat opposite Adora with all her usual grace.

“So, you’ve always been interested in doing more for the Rebellion, right?”

Perfuma nodded.

“Well we have a thing that we’re trying to do, by we I mean, Glimmer, me and Bow and I guess Glimmers parents and- It’s a kind of formal agreement for all the more powerful heroes and their influence I guess?”

Perfuma looked politely confused.

Adora tried again. “We want a formal agreement between a few people to help unify the Rebellion and make it easier to pool our resources in order to y’know stop the Horde because although we’re awesome, we are also just Uni students. Essentially we need you to help make this work.”

Perfuma pressed her palms together then separated them, a single stalk of red sweet pea appearing between them, she then handed it to Adora who couldn’t resist bringing it to her nose.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea. Keep me posted on the developments.”

One of Scoripias loyal servers swung around with a warm cheese scone, which Perfuma accepted. The food reminded Adora that she hadn’t gotten any yet and that was a travesty. Yes she’d just had breakfast? And?

“I’m going to go get my own food I’ll be back in a moment.”

Perfuma pointed non-threateningly with the knife and motioned for her to sit. Adora did.

“Come on, you’ve been a regular for longer than I have. Scorpia isn’t going to make you go up and order.”

Adora didn’t know quite what to say to that so she didn’t. Just got out her laptop and began to check just how far behind she was.

\---

Soon she had demolished her milkshake (which someone had brought to her, Perfuma raised her eyebrows at her when it happened. Adora poked her tongue out) and had make a daunting list of things she needed to do and all their respective due dates, both past and present. Surprisingly, she still had time to kill before her first class and she reflected that she probably could’ve gotten away with sleeping in just a tad more.

Her fingers went to where the sweet pea was tucked into her hair just above her ear.

It was probably time to talk to Scorpia.

“Hey Adora, I mean, hey again, or not again I can’t remember if I said hey to you, I think I did? Anyway, what can I do for you?” Scorpia wiped her claws on her apron to try and get rid of the flour that was trapped in the crevices.

“Oh I just wanted to talk, since I feel I should get to know the person behind all of this delicious food.”

Scorpia smiled a little lopsidedly. “Well I mean of course, I’m not the only one here I have all my baker friends who help out”

“what do you think of the Rebellion? I mean, you commented on my sword necklace but-“ Adora waved a hand in the air.

Scorpia looked around not so subtly. “Well, I think it’s…neat.”

Adora was confused. Why would someone like Scorpia who owned a bakery that was a safe space for all be cautious about supporting something like the Rebellion who strived for the same? She didn’t say anything, schooling her features.

And why did she feel like there was something just out of sight that would make all of this make sense?

Her phone buzzed, so she fished it out aware that the conversation was at a standstill anyway.

BOW: _Thought u might 4get abt classes u should gt them_

_ME: I didn’t forget and please learn how to type you have a touchscreen phone_

_BOW: No I <3 to torment u _

_ME: :c_

Adora put the phone away. She hadn’t forgotten but she was still cutting it fine.

“All right I’ve gotta go, cya later Scorpia, BYE PERFUMA.” She shouted this last bit.

Perfuma laughed the other patrons stared.

Adora took about three steps before she realised that something was very, very, very wrong. So, doing what you should never do, she went looking. Alone. To find the source.

Adora tried not to let her body betray anything, she wasn’t She-Ra yet. She couldn’t act like a fighting machine powered by light and otherworldly strength.

To her right a shadow that was slightly more defined that piles of garbage lurked. It moved so subtly that without practice Adora doubted she would’ve noticed; it was getting ready to strike. Adora could feel the eyes of the shadow on her back.

She pulled the necklace from her throat and felt it grow and change to fit perfectly in her palm weighing her down.

“FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL”

The world exploded into light of every colour weaving around Adora pulling her taller, strengething her muscles, sharpening her vision, her hair flowed impossibly long and blonde, her sword felt light and sharp in her hand. She-Ra glared into the alleyway. Maybe it was a bad idea to let them see her transform. But then again a 8ft glowing warrior was a hell of a distraction.

The shadow materialised into something corporeal and stood, still unrecognisable in the middle of the alleyway all three sets of arms crossed. Her rippling light slashed across them like sunlight in through trees, revealing curved spikes along their body viciously sharp.

“What are you doing here?”

“I have very good reasons for being in this dodgy alley I promise~” They drawled the end of ‘promise’. She-Ra had a subtle feeling that they weren’t being overly truthful.

“Oh come on, what are you really doi-“

They attacked and She-Ra threw up her arms ducking her head to avoid a spike. They snarled.

“I wish you hadn’t come here because now you won’t be leaving.” Their voice was gravelly like pebbles being crunched underfoot. She felt it in her teeth.

Fangs snapped at her arms so She-Ra dropped low letting their weight become unbalanced then she lashed out with her sword, it shifted into a staff that knocked their legs from underneath them, as it completed it’s arch it morphed back into a crystal sword.

Not stopping her attack, She-Ra did everything in her power to stop them from escaping. She was sweating and the alleyway smelt vile. The smell seemed to get into her very pores. _Why did all her fights have to happen in rank places?_

She grabbed two sets of their arms using her knees to keep them still. Her sword changed into her shield and she shoved that down on their chest pinning them.

“What are you doing here?” She repeated, She-Ra’s eyes glowing bright impossible blue.

Their face tried to turn from her, but she just pressed harder with the shield.

“I. Won’t. Tell. You. Hero.” Claws ruptured through her shield and they surged upwards throwing her back. She rolled over her shoulders coming back up just in time to parry a blow from a rusted pipe, her sword sunk halfway into it, as she pulled back it wrenched away from their hands. Their eyes widened in an ‘oh shit’ kind of way.

She-Ra went at them again pushing them back with every strike as they wrenched the pipe off her sword. their eyes darted behind her for a moment, She-Ra saw their teeth flash in a horrifying display of yellowed cruelty. _Fuck._

A force crashed into her back, she crashed forwards trying to not fall on her sword. The spiked attack whirled away from them.

“I thought you’d skived off asshole!”

The other one kicked away her sword. _Double Fuck._

“Shut up Leo.” They picked up the sword tilting it this way and that, skittering out of reach of She-Ra as she lashed out an arm to grab his ankle.

They both seemed to be identical twins.

A loud crash sounded, Leo and Not-Leo both whipped their heads to the noise. She-Ra stood in the same motion grabbing Not-Leo’s wrist and pressing her fingers rough and deep making his hand spasm, they dropped the sword with a howl.

“That’s not yours.” She said grinding out the words.

Now up and fighting she had caught her second wind, two of them made it much harder to fight but whatever that distraction was it allowed her to push them back.

They’d gotten over their shock though.

Teeth flashed, growls and guttural commands echoed out as crystal met steel and scales. Soon she wasn’t fighting for skill or triumph but for survival they had perfect coordination. Attack after attack came at her, claws grabbed at her tearing magical clothes and skin.

The smell of blood reeked.

She kept fighting knowing that if she faltered again, she would not be walking away from this fight. _It’s broad daylight what the hell is happening when did the Horde start doing daylight crime?_

She was getting slower, She-Ras powerful form could only do so much to boost her sleepless body. Thick strands of hair had come out of its magical ponytail she wasn’t even aware it could do that, being magical and all. They blocked her vision as she turned.

She was dangerously close to losing this battle and she shouldn’t be.

_She-Ra isn’t invincible, and she isn’t all powerful. She’s much closer to you Adora than she is to magic._

Bow’s words, often said, often ignored.

A blur of white streaked from between her legs it took all of her effort to not lose focus. The blur yowled. _Oh. My.God. It’s our cat!_

You’d be amazed at how distracting getting bit on the ankles is.

The twins danced better than they probably had in all their lives, right on their tip toes.

Without quite meaning too, once she was free of their clutches, she channelled her magic, felt it spark like a match. Light filled her veins it was the worlds best adrenaline rush. It rushed from her into the sword, the gem glowed almost too bright to even look at, a beam of sunlight exploded from it. _WHAT? WHEN WAS THAT A FEATURE?_

Her body didn’t care than her mind was currently short-circuiting, She-Ra grabbed a twin and held them in place, all sets of arms pinned.

The light bounced around the alley everybody, but the cat was stunned, who leapt into the path of the beam.

She-Ra finally realised what it looked like when she transformed. The whole shape of the cat blurred white; the edges golden. Then the shape became very un-catlike in fact it kind of looked like-

“IS THAT A HORSE?” Leo yelled.

Leo then abandoned their twin and took of down the alleyway. Not-Leo was not pleased. Feeling bad for a Horde member was not really her style, but she was too weirded out to continue to hold on to Not-Leo. They booked it.

The horse sprouted wings and a unicorn horn. So not horse at all.

The light faded and its hooves made a neat clicking sound as it landed.

“Finally.”

“What.”

It threw its head backwards. “I said, finally, I’ve been a cat for far too long. I hate cats.”  
  


She-Ra felt all the magic leave her system she sat down in a heap her sword felt too heavy in her hands.

Adora looked up at the alicorn.

“What.”

The alicorn sniffed. “Are you broken?”

“No.” _Just very, very, very confused._

“Good, stand up we have much to discuss.”

Adora stood.

“How did I do that?” She reached for her phone instinctively checked the notifications somehow expecting that her friends would realise this life changing event.

“I don’t know alright. I’m Swiftwind. I was a horse but then some idiot Horde solider turned me into a cat. Now I’m a horse again. Thanks to your weird light magic.”

Adora was very tempted to sit down again. You see all manner of weird things in Etheria there is no such thing as normal, not really any such thing as human but come on you have to draw the line somewhere and Adora drew it at shapeshifting horses.

Two thoughts crossed her mind: _What am I going to do with a magical horse,_ And, _I am going to be so late for class_. 


	5. Meetings and Greetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora shoves the problem of Swiftwind onto Perfuma because she is wildly late and wildly behind in all of her classes because she is a certified disaster. One very pretty girl and one interesting conversation later the rebels are rebelling it up in the backroom of the store because they really are just like that huh. She-Ra runs into trouble, then has to run into more. Does Adora ever get a break? Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowowow I am back with another chapter, I literally didn't listen to any music while I wrote this which is a crazy concept that was borne less out of 'silence is good for the imagination' and more out of 'owowowowowo noise make brain itch' hope you're having a happy quarantine because even though my country has no community transmission rn I know that is very much not the case for most. As a mentally ??? person myself do try and stay sane plz.

Adora was still in the alleyway, still numb with shock. Still staring.

Swiftwind tolerated this for about a minute.

“HELLO? ARE YOU DEAD?” His face got very close to hers.

She leapt back.

“I’m not dead, I’m fine just-“ Lots of hand movements, “-thinking.”

“Well think about where I’m going to live.”

Adora took a steadying breath. “Not to be rude but why is that my problem?”

“Your magical light turned me almost back into a horse therefore, I’m bound to you by it. Basic magical creature stuff. You should know this.” If a horse could shrug he would’ve.

“Okay. Okay. Okay.” She started pacing around the alleyway, aware that every second she spent on this the later and later she was to a class she couldn’t be late to.

_Who can I call? Who would want to deal with a headstrong magical horse? Oh, Oh, OH._

“Stay here a moment please Swiftwind.”

Not waiting for an answer, she took off crashing back through the doors of the bakery. She didn’t know how she looked but the shock was wearing off and the pain was now just rearing its head, so she assumed it was _bad._

“PERFUMA GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!” Her voice rattled the windowpanes.

“Adora?” Perfuma was standing so Adora just made a ‘hurry up’ gesture and left.

“What could possibly be so important as to disrupt everyone’s mornings with?”

Adora stood and gestured grandly to Swiftwind, who spread his wings and threw his head back, the picture of strength and grace.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, _Oh_. Look Perfuma I hate to do this to you but I’ve actually gotta run, I am hopelessly late for my class and I honestly will fail it if I don’t leave immediately, I will probably cry about this later but I mean you sign up for the Rebellion and sometimes you just have to deal with magical horses that were once cats and now speak and fly and names are Swiftwind."

Perfuma watched in shock as she sucked in a breath.

“Anyway, do you have Bow’s or Glimmer’s number?”

Perfuma carefully clasped her hands together in front of her. “Yes.”

Adora nodded, once, twice, three times then ran off in the direction of the uni.

\--

Adora had never opened and closed a door so carefully and gently. Still 20 out of 70 heads turned towards her. Including the professor. Madame Razz.

“Mara.”

Now 70 heads were turned.

“It’s Adora.”

Madame Razz paused and then shrugged. “You are both the same.”

Adora wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that she was constantly being confused with Mara, no one had heard of a Mara in relation to Madame Razz and it was kind of a campus conspiracy theory. Adora wanted to know who Mara was but felt guilty gossiping about it.

She made the awkward trudge up the lecture hall’s stairs to the worst seat available, both in the fact that you need binoculars to see anything and the fact that the weird slanting desk thing was horribly wobbly and decidedly broken.

The girl next to her was just watching her suffer as she tried to negotiate her desk, it really was not working, Adora was so far embarrassed you could roast marshmallows off her face. To make it worse the girl had to bring a hand to her mouth to stop from laughing.

Adora gave up, tried to cool down her body temperature and focus. Wait. She turned to face the girl. That was The Girl. The one from work. No wonder she hadn’t immediately noticed, instead of being buried in fabric she was wearing a cherry red cropped shirt and high waisted black shorts. Her hair had been plaited down her back, two sections of loose hair fell down her cheeks by her ears, which were alert but not alarmed. Adora realised what it was that had changed the most. She looked comfortable, well as comfortable as someone could be in a lecture hall with Madame Razz for a professor.

Adora was staring. She has long black nails that Adora realised could be retracted at will, something she noticed as the girl scratched letters into the desk, a pair probably initials to match a dozen like them. Stop staring. Madame Razz. Failing this class.

Adora got out her laptop. Took a breath and attempted to listen. She couldn’t help but look over every so often just to check that the girl was real. _Had she recognised me?_

It was a miracle that ancient languages came oddly naturally to her, Adora chalked it up to the whole She-Ra sitch, it still threw her when she could read something in First Ones writing without studied the language before high school. Other ancient languages didn’t come as easily to her for some reason though, but because of their very broad overlapping with First Ones markings it still wasn’t as impossible as some very stressed classmates of hers seemed to find it.

Her thoughts then moved to the fact that she had left Perfuma alone. With Swiftwind. Then she was thinking that she hadn’t been thinking about that which was kind of weird since it has been literally the most significant thing to happen to her since she became, She-Ra. Who knew stumbling through the woods after getting hopelessly lost would lead to magical powers?

“Are you at all paying attention?”

Adora’s chin slipped off her hand, the desk wobbled nearly toppling her things off the desk, she managed to catch her drink bottle before it hit the floor.

“What?” Adora looked over and the girl had an insufferable smirk on her face.

“So, that’s a no.”

Adora scowled.

Madame Razz’s eyes somehow found her in her corner, and she shook her head just the tiniest amount. Adora’s focus didn’t waver after that. She promises.

\--

As soon as the class was over and Adora had flown through the translation practise paragraph she fled the place, Madame Razz caught her arm.

“You are just like Mara, you know this?”

Madame Razz didn’t wait around for Adora’s befuddlement to subside and opened a drawer of her desk, she wafted a photo in Adora’s direction, and it showed a frankly, beautiful woman. Her skin was like the golden sand at Etheria’s beaches. She was smiling her head tilted back slightly so her dark brown hair which was swept up into a complicated but beautiful ponytail was on full glorious display. _This is Mara?_

“I look nothing like her.” Adora said dumbly.

Madame Razz shook her hands and all her silver bangles chimed together.

“No, no, it is not what is here that is the same,” she gestured to Adora’s person, “It is what is here that is the same.” Her finger pointed to Adora’s heart.

Adora felt the same kind of hum that she did whenever she was around her friends and they were giving all of the magic that they had, a buzzing under her skin. _What?_

The girl passed by them shooting daggers at Madame Razz and although Adora wasn’t the recipient of them she still felt their sharpness.

“Yo Adora, let’s move.”

Madame Razz was still making eye contact with her. “I think you understand now.”

Adora felt like maybe she did.

“Cya later Razz.” The girl tugged Adora’s backpack tab pulling her to the door.

“Goodbye Cassandra I hope to see your marks improve.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes.

Adora couldn’t think to do anything but follow her. Once they were nowhere near the class Cassandra rounded on her.

“You don’t think that’s weird?” Her blue and yellow eyes were competing for Adora’s focus.

“What?”

“Madame Razz, how she treats you, Mara, all of it. You don’t think that’s weird?”

“I mean, sure. But it’s Madame Razz.”

Cassandra scoffed. “OK.”

“I don’t know who Mara is!” Adora protested.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes and flicked her ears. “I don’t believe that. Because I’ve never seen you focused in class yet you’ve never failed a paper.”

“How do you know that.”

Cassandra sighed and it carried the weight of a jumbo jet within it.

“Look First Ones writing is just easy stuff for me, I don’t know why.” _Lie._

Cassandra seemed to think so too.

“Ancient languages that are completely removed from your native tongue do not come easily to people. Look, Adora I don’t know what’s going on with you but try not to get killed, bit of a bummer. ” Cassandra saluted and walked away.

“I’m not- what? Wait-“

“I’ll see you around, some people don’t plan to fail all their classes.” She called over her shoulder.

Adora took a mental count. That was three significant things to happen to her in one day. What the heck man. She was gonna need to take a three-hour bath to cry and process this. Also- how did this random girl somehow pick up on the fact that she was maybe not as regular as her other classmates.

So, Adora called Glimmer.

“Hey.”

“HEY? Hey, oh Hey Glimmer, yes everything is fine, since I She-Ra haven’t left you with an arrogant as fuck horse who oh by the way flies and is magic!” Adora had to remove the phone from her ear, but she still felt the sheer pressure of Glimmer’s voice rattle her brains.

“Look I’m sorry I didn’t think.”

“No, I don’t think you did.” Glimmers voice had dropped but the tone was iron.

“I need your help.”

Silence.

“What with.”

“Well, with everything, three significant life events have happened to me in the past 24 hrs. I still have one more class to go and after that work but you can crash that to talk to me, bring Bow too if he’s free.”

“Oh, I will, and you better be able to explain what is going on.” Glimmer hung up.

She was so tired. It was only now that the toll of fighting on little sleep took effect. Her body felt heavy, her bag like it was filled with stones. _You’d think a girl would learn_.

Cassandra had well and truly disappeared and Adora wondered if she might see her later, she probably wouldn’t. Probably. Adora pressed her cool drink bottle to her head.

_Bzzz_

She fished out her phone.

**_Bow:_ ** _Glimmer said dat we r talking l8r_

**_Adora_ ** _:_ _yeah I know I kinda screwed you over with Swiftwind._

**_Bow:_ ** _Nah daz fine dw he’s kinda cool_

_That certainly wasn’t my impression._ Adora thought. She checked the time one more then started to the main building.

\--

The day had worn away to dusk which sucked since Adora had had basically no time to herself all day, rushing around like a headless chicken especially bone tired was literally the worst idea she had had in a while.

Thankfully the store was quiet so nobody was going to notice a group of rebels hidden away in the backroom conspiring against evil.

“So now that we’re all here…” Glimmer said, her anger had time to dissipate aided by the numerous pleading voicemails Adora left explaining everything.

“Seahawk get out.” Glimmer said, pointing at the man who was clearly trying to eavesdrop.

“But Glimmer! I am a pirate I think I deserve to listen in on your spooky adventures!” He protested.

“Out.”

He sulked but Adora figured that he’d get over it.

“How’s it all working out?” Glimmer continued glaring after Seahawk.

Perfuma clasped her hands in front of her. “Well I’ve convinced all those within my reach to help out your Rebellion. Well, our Rebellion I suppose, you can count on all of us to help. Though I warn you not many of us are the fists and gunpowder sort.”

Glimmer brightened. “That’s great news! And of course this isn’t the Horde we aren’t making soldiers here, whatever help we can get is fantastic.”

“It’s not all good unfortunately.” Mermista said. “My great big extended family have their own politics to get a hold of and they don’t really put the Rebellion on their priority list.”

“Ew.” Adora remarked.

“You can count on our help.” Frosta said clearly over not being apart of the conversation.

She was still young, and her choppy blue hair was sticking up in all sorts of directions, but she was determined and willing to help, Glimmer was right when she accepted her as apart of the Rebellion.

The clicking of metal parts made everyone turn to where Entrapta was hanging from the support beams, busy building something that looked like a cross between a spider and a tank.

“Yes,I’ll help. Although I don’t know how much more you’re expecting me too. I’m constantly building and destroying things for you.”

Glimmer smiled. “Don’t worry this is just for formalities sake.”

Entrapta looked like she still didn’t understand the point but was quickly absorbed in her project again. 

All that left was Netossa and Spinnerella who were being incredibly diplomatic by holding hands and generally being very adorable. It was a tactic Adora approved.

“Netossa?”

She looked up. “Oh, right yes, we’re all on board.”

Glimmer could power a village with how excited she was. “Are you kidding? This is great, this is great! We might actually have a chance to make this work!”

Bow bumped into Mermista grinning wildly. “LET’S GO!” 

Mermista rolled her eyes but she was smiling as everyone else erupted into cheers.

Adora and Bow stumbled their way through the rebels to Glimmer who nearly crushed them both flat her hug.

\--

Although Adora could’ve gone celebrating with the rest of them she didn’t mind the quiet, the time to rest and just not feel like a chaotic mess for a moment. She was nearly falling asleep where she stood but it was worth it.

She was restocking the blue section which was all ocean swirls and creamy pastels. It smelled like the sea. Well. Adora had actually never seen the ocean, it still smelled nice though, and comforting.

Her mind, finally given a chance to think wanders back to Cassandra and then she’s thinking that Cassandra probably didn’t like her full name because it seriously didn’t seem to fit her, then she was thinking it was probably pretty weird of her to change her name based on very limited information that Adora knows about Cassandra. Or Cas. Or- She is very confused.

Adora keeps restocking trying to skirt her thoughts of two-toned eyes and cropped shirts and seriously. _That’s_ _gay Adora_. She picks up another bag of ultramarine bath melts.

Finally she finishes the section and just decides to lock up and have that three-hour bath she’s been promising herself all day. The lock clunks firmly into place and she takes a step back and rolls out her shoulders, neck, wrists. Everything. Trying to dislodge the feeling crawling up her spine.

Adora turns around, trying not to act like she’s seen the flickers of movement around the corner. _Can I catch a single break today?_

Adora fishes out her phone and feigns a phone call stepping closer to the shadowy wall instinctively. 

“No, yes that’s fine I already told you it was fine.” The black screen didn’t answer back.

A definite shape appeared in the dark, it wasn’t the teen from a couple days ago or either of the Swiftwind incident Horde soldiers. Adora saw long curly hair and claws, blue and yellow eyes.

Adora ‘hangs up’ and texts an actual number.

_ADORA: hey just saw Catra outside the store_

_GLIMMER: Go after her!!!_

_ADORA: Isn’t that dangerous?_

_GLIMMER: You idiot I’ll send someone to help you out but you are s h e – r a_

_ADORA: I thought I wasn’t supposed to be getting into danger_

_GLIMMER: just go._

Adora was feeling like maybe there were some double standards at play here. She tumbles out of view of Catra hoping praying that she wouldn’t be able to make the connection between Adora and She-Ra

“ _For the honour of grayskull”_ Adora was constantly grateful for the discovery that she didn’t need to shout the phrase she could literally whisper it and it still works, just as long as she took the magic in her blood and push it through her voice it still works.

Taking a breath she circles around until she’s coming from nearly the opposite direction that ‘Adora’ left.

She-Ra catches Catra’s eye immediately.

“Oh, hey there princess.” Catra’s voice is like oil on an ice rink.

“Catra.”

Catra smiles, a wide cutting thing as she lowers herself with grace down to ground level.

“That’s me, what can I do for you?”

She-Ra tightens the grip on her sword. “I mean ideally you would tell me everything about the Horde and how the Rebellion can take you all down.”

Catra laughs and it shouldn’t make goose bumps appear on her skin, but it does.

“What are you doing to do _She-Ra_ ” Catra draws out her name slowly and mockingly.

She tries to get her brain to work. Why is she pursuing Catra? What does she need to find out? She takes a breath.

“So, you’re a Force Captian right? Feeling pretty good about the whole promotion thing huh?” Her voice comes out steady and cool.

Catra taps the badge with her claw. “I’m only the youngest Force Captain in the Horde.”

She-Ra grinds the tip of her sword into the concrete, Catra hisses and flattens her ears at the sound. It’s about 7x worse than nails on a blackboard. She-Ra can feel it in her teeth.

“I don’t suppouse you could tell me about where you’re going tonight?”

Catra flicks her ears up again and pushes her hair back off her shoulders. “Oh, I think you should be far more concerned with where I’ve been princess.”

Glimmer’s voice crackles to life in her earpiece Entrapta had installed into her tiara. “ _Adora I don’t know what just happened exactly, but the city is lighting up like Guy Fawkes and not in a fun way. I think you’d better just let Catra go we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”_

Catra must’ve seen her face because she laughs and swings herself up, so she’s balanced on the steel railings.

“Go be a hero blondie.” She laughs as she’s swallowed by the shadows.

She-Ra is so close to just grabbing that dumb cat and hauling her to the authorities, but they have nothing on her and she has a strong suspicion that the Horde will just bounce her out of whatever cell she lands herself in.

“Seriously!” She hisses, swinging her sword so it melts into a short dagger much more useful for climbing.

She reaches up to flick on her comms and is already walking to where she can see electric blue smoke pour from the horizon. “I’m on my way. where are you?”


	6. Waking Up and Winding Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora wakes up in a place she's never been, with people who don't quite look like they're the friendly sort. She's forced to relax and take a bath, and b r e a t h e for a moment. So she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowwowowow I'm updating!!! yes!! very nice to see, currently packing for a school camp that has been reported to be a disaster but my motivation has been handed back to me this past week and I have made very good use of it. Only got three more weeks to go for school for the year which is nice but it's just really boring tbh, I like school but only when we're doing stuff that is important not just to fill a period y'know? Anyhow I have some fun stuff planned for the next chapter please enjoy!
> 
> Songs I listened too:  
> The entire album of Under My Influence - The Aces  
> Blue Hundreds - Holy Mattress Money  
> Quarter Past Midnight - Bastille
> 
> ( Hey Andrew enjoy re-reading this chapter <]:) )

_Uh oh._

It wasn’t the most eloquent thing that Adora could’ve thought but hey. She just woke up in a place she’d never been and a place that seemed very, very, very, unlike a place where her friends would be.

Tossing her head back as far as she could was her first mistake. Originally, it was a ploy to try and see the room, but actually just sent blood rushing around her skull so fast she nearly passed out. Her wrists burned where she tried to pull against the rope. _The rope._ Thus began her second mistake. Mildly panicking. If she had just stayed still and quiet, then she probably wouldn’t have alerted a Horde solider who swung into her field of vision.

“Yeah I don’t think you’ll want to be moving anytime soon.”

Another voice cut through. “Shut up idiot.”

“No you shut up-“

Adora had a headache she felt like was bleeding purple bruises all throughout her thoughts. The clattering of metal clad fists against metal clad bodies sent bright red needles into her skull. Oh. this majorly sucked.

“HEY.” This was barked by a third voice. The scuffle outside Adora’s vision stopped.

“Untie her already. We have standards.” All the gruffness in the voice pooled into quicksilver. 

Adora felt the ropes be cut away, she immediately swung her arms back in front of her and examined the raw flesh trying to soothe it with her mind. It didn’t work.

The third voice stood in front of her, pale green skin and pulled back yellow eyes flashed at her. Whoever this was it was not someone Adora had met.

“Sorry to have to meet you like this, but we do have a few questions and since you’re obviously not going to activate any powers because, and I can’t stress this enough darling, that would be a _seriously_ bad idea, I think we can have a normal conversation, do you agree?”

Adora bit her tongue. This was the kind of person who Adora never got along with, someone who had a way of acting kind with a chill that told you they were faking it. The kind of person who knew everything and relished in showing their fangs while speaking to you.

“I think I can manage that.”

“Lovely!” The false cheer sent every one of Adora’s survival instincts into overdrive. “Oh dear, I haven’t even asked you your name how rude of me, well, you don’t really need to know my name but my pronouns are they/them which is probably worth mentioning.”

“Oh, Adora, she/her.”

“Nice to meet you Adora. What do you think of the Rebellion?” 

“I think they’re fine. I mean I don’t have a strong opinion; all the charity stuff they do is pretty neat I guess.” Given that Adora didn’t have any long-standing experience in being a hostage she thought that was a pretty good answer.

“An opinion many seem to share, what my real question is why on earth did a magical horse clearly Rebellion affiliated make an effort to save you of all people?”

That’s when a couple realisations happened. First. The Horde did not know that she was She-Ra though she did feel the comforting weight of her sword against her chest. Second, this was most likely someone who had become a bit infamous to the Rebellion, though no one had been able to pin them down there were countless stories of a Horde member who never gave out their name but always gave out their pronouns. Adora was a certified Girl In Red listener, and thus supported and loved her trans siblings but not many Horde members tended to be Queer so it was a little bit of a standout.

Their eyes flashed at her reminding her that she hadn’t yet spoken. “Oh yeah sorry I just don’t really know, maybe it’s because I’m blonde or something? I mean I don’t really have any notable powers just strength, so I don’t think it’s that. Heroes save people right? Maybe the horse just wanted to save someone.” She shrugged very aware that her legs were still bound.

They tilted their head regarding her.

“So you really aren’t all that interesting then Adora? Need I remind you that lying is a bad idea?”

“No yeah, I’m not lying, and honest I’m just a uni kid who is behind in her coursework, speaking of which, do you mind telling me the time if I’m missing any classes I’m actually going to fail like you might think that’s a joke but when I said I was behind I really meant was catastrophically ‘oh shit I’ve put B.C into my time machine instead of A.D’ behind..”

They rolled their eyes heavily. “Right. Okay, clearly this one is fine.” They tilted their head back to Adora. “Sorry about doing some light kidnapping, but if you tell anybody about any of these events, I will not hesitate to make your head part with your shoulders permanently.”

All of their teeth stood out as they sneered at her.

Adora didn’t know how to feel as one of the younger? Horde soldiers cut the ropes binding her feet. She stood stumbling a little but not enough to make her accept any kind of help.

“Right, well, no offence but I really hope I don’t have to see you again.”

They laughed the sound sharp and almost mocking. Adora was blindfolded, deafened, and then shoved into a car, shoved into another car, had the blindfold removed and the earplugs taken out, and unceremoniously dumped at the uni she went to. A bag was handed to her of all the things she had on her person and then the car left her.

_Okay. This is fine. I’ve been un-kidnapped. They someone didn’t figure out that I was literally She-Ra. They now know I am failing uni._

She powered on her phone and immediately it tried to vibrate out of her hand and crash against the footpath. Adora held it between her finger a thumb trying to wait out the buzzing.

The buzzing finally stopped and Adora immediately called Glimmer back.   
  
  


“Hey! Before you get angry, I need you to come pick me up I’m at the uni, south entrance.” 

“ADORA! YOU’RE ALIVE? BOOOOW! SHE’S ALIVE!” Her ears were ringing but she appreciated the sentiment. 

“Yeah yeah, I know did you hear me?”

“Yes you idiot I’m on my way right now Bow is just putting on his shoes- THOUGH HE SHOULDN’T BOTHER - we’ll be there soon DO NOT MOVE.” Glimmer hung up.

Adora breathed in clean air, she hadn’t really realised that what she was breathing before wasn’t anything good. Her wrists ached and her headache had not improved, though the drinking fountain helped a little.

Sunlight felt good on her face and body, she was sure she looked a right mess. She was just grateful that her phone was charged, and she only had bruises and raw skin. 

A car pulled up and Glimmer barely parked before tumbling out the door and into Adora’s arms. She winced and Glimmer pulled back immediately concerned. 

“Where were you?” 

Adora gave a half-hearted smile. Bow walked up having taken a moment to properly park the car so they weren’t pinged.

“What would you say if I was lightly kidnapped?” It was an attempt at humour, but Glimmer didn’t laugh.

“What.” 

Bow held up her wrists. “Holy shit. You weren’t kidding- Are you okay?”

“I mean mostly but uhm, I’d really appreciate it if we could go get coffee right about now.” 

Bow almost looked guilty. “Oh yeah definitely- I- yes Let’s go do that immediately.” 

They didn’t haunt The Bakery and Adora didn’t bother trying to explain that she didn’t feel like going to a front for Horde activity, so she just shrugged off Glimmer’s concerned stare. 

The cafe they ended up in was a nice one, small and had paintings crowding the walls. A cat lounged on a counter watching as patrons lazily trickled in and out. 

“What’s the date?” 

Adora fiddled with the drink’s menu trying to ignore the gnawing feelings that was eating her up. 

Glimmer checked her phone carefully keeping her expression neutral not betraying anything.

“Well it’s the 17th, so it’s only been two days.” 

_Two days. Two days. Two days. Two days. Two days._

“Are you okay?” Glimmer took her hand in hers and rubbed the back of it in small gentle circles. 

“I- I don’t remember anything apart from today.” She didn’t understand why she was crying but she felt the tightness in her throat and the burning in her eyes. 

Glimmer scooted closer to her and wrapped her in another hug. Bow came back from ordering at the counter and joined them on Adora’s other side. 

Adora let herself melt into their presence, closed her eyes and blotted out the fact she was in public, erased everything that wasn’t gentle breathing and squeezing arms. 

A clink five minutes later opened her eyes, she wiped them to try and clear her vision, the waiter looked apologetic but stayed quiet as they placed the drinks down. Adora offered them a watery smile. 

“Cheers.” Glimmer accepted the drinks and slid an iced chocolate Bow’s way who gratefully accepted it, and a vanilla milkshake towards Adora. 

They didn’t say anything for a while as Adora recovered. 

She was barely breathing as she inhaled the milkshake. It was probably the best thing she had tasted ever. By the time she remembered to breathe it was over half gone. 

“Okay, I think I’m ready now.” She took another drink. 

Glimmer and Bow waited patiently, Adora knew that they were dying to know what happened though she did feel that they probably knew more than she did. 

“Okay, right, yes. I woke up in a very, very, very shadowy room, think interrogation room, I was bound that kinda sucked.” She let her fingers tap out rhythm on the wood. “There were a couple inexperience Horde soldiers… there was a more experienced soldier who I think was probably our notorious evil enby since they gave me their pronouns, anyway, they questioned me a little, they didn’t know that I was She-Ra which is crazy because my last memory is very much of me being She-Ra so I’m missing some details there.” 

Bow took a thoughtful sip of his iced chocolate, how someone managed to thoughtfully drink something with that much whipped cream was beyond her, but Bow pulled it off.

“So what’s the last thing you remember?” Glimmer had been occupied with calling various people including the uni to say that Adora was still alive and not nearly as banged up as one would expect from a Horde kidnapping but is taking the week off.

“Okay yeah, but the week? I can’t miss a week of uni.”

Glimmer gave her an appraising look. “Well you’ve already missed three days and you were _literally kidnapped_ so I think it’s well within your rights to take some time off.” 

Adora wasn’t happy about it but dropped it. “The last thing I remember is meeting Catra, and then going towards you guys... Something about lights…”

Glimmer stared at her. “You met Catra.” 

Adora narrowed her eyes and flicked a look at Bow but he also looked like this was new information. “It’s not important, what happened after that?”

Bow shook himself a little. “Well then you helped out, if you check the news you’ll see what the Horde did, it isn’t like super extreme but it was needlessly endangering people to draw out heroes. At least that’s the theory.”

“The lights were these monster fireworks that are very much illegal, they got one of their powered folk to take ‘em from 0 - 100. Frightened everyone ad got a couple folks badly burnt, no fires and no deaths though.” 

Adora sat back processing.

“Okay. How did I end up in the Horde’s possession?” 

Glimmer shared a glance with Bow. “Yeah, we ended up being split, fireworks kept going off all over the show and we needed to keep checking on folks, Swiftwind followed you and that’s all we know, none of us were with you, it was only after every had stopped and you failed to check in that we worried but we didn’t have a strong location on you, it’s… yeah.”

_How did she forget getting kidnapped? How on earth did I deactivate but not bear any marks?_

She didn’t ask any of that though. “Is Swiftwind alright?”

Bow narrowed his eyes. “Oh yeah, He’s fine” His tone was flat and Adora could’ve sworn that his eyes flashed with something like hatred. Adora decided not to press. 

“Can we go home?” Her voice cracked a little and she feigned nonchalance by finishing the last of her milkshake.

“Absolutely.” 

\---

Adora didn’t sleep when she came home but she was so exhausted she wasn’t convinced she was full awake either.

“Oh- by the way Adora, before you fall asleep down there. She-Ra is taking the fuck out of a hiatus as well.” Glimmer clunked mugs down on the coffee table to prove her point.

Oh. Adora was awake now.

“What? Are you serious?”

Glimmer folded her arms. “What? Did you think that a break from uni was so you can go free for all as She-Ra? Yeah, nah.”

“Whatever I’m going to bed.”

\--

When she finally woke up in her bed for the first time in longer than she really wanted to think about, Glimmer and Bow had left her with dirty dishes and a couple scrawled notes with cute drawings of, in order: A dog with very large eyes and bushy fur, Swiftwind stomping a horde soldier, and a very hastily drawn picture of Adora being angry.

She smoothed out the wrinkles in the paper from an alarming amount of coffee stains and thought about what she would bother to eat for breakfast. This process involved a lot of opening and closing the fridge and cabinets. A lot of mournful staring, and a lot of tapping of fingers.

Now clean and dripping everywhere because no matter what anyone tells you there is genuinely zero way to dry your hair without using a hairdryer until your arm goes wobbly.

Adora landed back in front of the fridge chewing her lip. She pulled out the milk and dragged out some Weetbix. Then put the milk back and grabbed out the yogurt, it was vanilla because obviously. She crushed up the Weetbix in her hands sprinkling them back into the bowl and heaped on enough yogurt to run a FroYo. For some reason Weexbix softened with yogurt was really good, it was like cold porridge but in the best possible way because it was still a little crunchy in some places and didn’t skin.

Munching away, she scrolled through her subscription feed, feeling thoroughly disappointed with all the options, except for a cool video about how screens project darker colours and why colour banding is so, so, so, obvious in dark scenes. She did regret it a little since now she was hyper aware of it but what can you do, it’s science.

As she lounged she felt the grime of existence get thicker and thicker, it wasn’t that she was a germaphobe but at the same time there is no worse feeling to Adora than having a layer of oil and dirt on her body. Hauling her body, her up she wandered into the bathroom, grabbed the showerhead and turned the water on high, using the pressure to wash away all the dust and other things that have commandeered the bath since she last used it.

Getting the water to the right temperature is a fine art, something that requires experimentation and dozens of baths, her preferred method is to make it comforting but not fill the bath all the way so later on she can add more hot water. Leaving the taps to run she grabbed a chair and dragged it into the bathroom, propping it up by the side and stacking a couple hefty books that she wouldn’t mind getting a little water damaged on top.

Walking back and forth across the flat she collected, candles, matches, towel, snacks, water, her laptop and nice PJ’s even though it was barely 1:00PM. There were few things nicer than watching tv shows or movies in the bath and that is just a fact.

Working where she did Adora got huge armfuls of product that they couldn’t sell because it was damaged or expired or whatever, she did buy select items herself but the bulk of her stash came from the floor. Sounds gross, but it’s the same principle as bakeries throwing out bread that is only a little old but still perfectly good for soups and tough teeth.

She decided on a bathbomb, not that she really needed to decide, she always used bathbombs but the actual decision is _what one?_ Her favourites were the ones that packed as much colour into them as possible, it was the fantasy of mixing every paint that Bow owned onto a single canvas, it was staring out of the window of a spaceship at the galaxy that was every single colour you could think of and a few you hadn’t. Ever since she was young she’d loved colour and light, loved looking through kaleidoscopes for hours, marvelling at the way the sky emptied out it’s pockets to her.

This time she went for one that made her feel like a dragon guarding her hoard. It was pale white on the outside but inside had popping candy, yellow and orange dried flowers encased in oils, rust coloured glitter that spun and swirled around her, it somehow smelled vaguely smokey though not enough for it to linger on your skin, the main scent was bergamot and hints of orange, honestly amazing. Not the craziest one she owned but it was a bit of a favourite because come on, who wouldn’t want to be a dragon?

The T.V show she decided on was re-watching Queer Eye for like the 12th time. It may or may not be a comfort show. She loved all the Fab 5 and felt like everyone did, a little jealous but too entertained for it to stick. You couldn’t help but want 5 magical queer folk to come and fix your life for you.

She turned on the first episode and dropped it in. The bathbomb fizzed and spun, the white shell falling away as the autumnal insides poured out, the popping candy reacted to the water crackling away as the flowers lost their shea butter and oil coatings, they spun in amongst all the glitter and reds and gold of the dyes. It was mesmerising every single time.

Adora hopped in and let the smells and Queer Eye distract her from the gnawing in her heart about not being out in the world helping people. Glimmer’s argument was strong, “ _Even heroes need breaks idiot.”_ Also, she very much doubted that the Fab 5 would approve her not taking time for herself. So she did, she relaxed, and she wasn’t a hero she was just a tired girl taking a bath and it was _nice._


	7. Dancing and Debacles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora is going a little crazy, but that's nothing a dramatic, glitter covered, and mysterious ball couldn't fix right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo yo yo yo I am back. I exist, things kinda, well, did, blow up over the Christmas holidays but in other news I have made serious/significant steps in my mental health journey! (shout out to my therapist you're great) So I have a 7,000 word chapter for you which is like a record for me. Forgive me for any mistakes with their names for some reason their names aren't common words that autocorrect will pick up on??? weird. I have not and will not give up on this fic I will finish it, it just might take me a long ass time. 
> 
> Coupla songs I listened to on like. repeat whilst writing this.  
> \- Make You Feel Pretty : Lovelytheband  
> \- Positions (album) - Ariana Grande  
> \- Colouring Outside The Lines - Misterwives

“I wish I was She-Ra right now.”

“Stop sulking” Glimmer flicked a piece of fluff in her direction.

Adora was _not_ sulking. She was just. Bored.

“You have put me under house arrest and you want me to be happy??”

“You’re not under house arrest.”

Adora scrunched up her face. “Yeah, I think that when someone is only allowed outside for a set amount of time every day for a set ammount of reasons and the entire thing is a punishment for something they’d qualify it as house arrest.”

“Y’know you nearly died.”

“Yeah but that was like a week ago.”

Glimmer opened her mouth, closed it and just rubbed her face. “It is far too early for this conversation.”

Adora knew that maybe she was taking the whole getting actually _kidnapped_ thing a little to lightly. Either way, Adora was _not_ a house cat. She did not do well in captivity.

“Please let me go outside.”

“Go talk to Swiftwind.”

“Y’know what I know it’s crazy but I think he might be growing on me.”

Glimmer looked at her like she _was_ crazy. “We are talking about the same Swiftwind, the one who you ‘rescued’ in the alley and the one who was actually a magical horse that was cursed and now we all know why? That Swiftwind?”

“You know I love you but that really does not matter at the moment-“

Bow flung a letter at Adora who caught it frowning. He rushed over to Glimmer and tore his open.

“Wait- is that-“

“THE ROYALTY BALL BOYSSSS”

“Oh. That.”

“Come on Adora you accidentally insult Frosta and make a complete fool of yourself one time, does not mean that your Royalty Ball days are over!” Bow’s eyes were shining so bright Adora nearly forgot that he was human.

To be fair, the invitations were beautiful, on heavy midnight blue cardstock and with delicate script, stars dotting the entire thing. “I really wasn’t expecting to be invited again after last year.”

“No one will remember.”

“Are you kidding? It was a FORMAL SCHOOL EVENT literally everyone will remember.”

Glimmer had snatched Bow’s invite and pointed at the location. “Hey that’s Mermista’s place right?”

Bow peered over her shoulder. “Dude! Mermista’s hosting? This is actually going to be cool.”

“I don’t think my red dress will work for a blue theme.”

“Adora honestly, that isn’t an issue because you know full well mum’ll force upon us as many dresses and cropped tuxes as we can handle.”

Adora grimaced. “I know.”

\---

Angella was half an hour away and so Adora had snuck out and onto their roof where they had set up with Perfuma’s help of course, a kind of stable for Swiftwind.

“Do I have to go?”

“Why would you not though, it sounds awesome. Actually, you should take me, you can take me right? I think I’d really ‘wow’ all the guests with this new song I’ve been working on.”

Adora had pointedly left out the bit on the invite which said all invitees can bring a plus one.

“I am sure that everyone in attendance would love to hear you sing.”

Swiftwind tossed his head, nearly crashed because oh yeah, he was currently doing loops around the rooftop, Adora had stopped trying to look at him ‘cause it only made her dizzy.

“I know, I am pretty great! But speaking about you not going again, haven’t you been really wanting to go outside for ages now?”

“Yeah… just, a _formal event_? And it’s a school event at that.” She picked at a piece of straw until it pulled loose from the stack and then went in for another piece.

“I think you should go. I mean, if I can’t you’re the next best thing right? Also, you’re She-Ra so I don’t see why the opinons of-“ Swiftwind snorted. “- _School faculty_ would matter to someone who’s eyes can literally glow.”

Adora flopped back. “Ugh.”

Swiftwind landed on the roof, nearly burying Adora in loose straw as he did so. “It’ll work out fine, by the way what other occasion do you have to wear fancy clothes? Also, unrelated but very related to my happiness please can you give me some sugar cubes?”

Adora cracked open one eye and saw Swiftwind looming over her.

“Fine.”

\--

“So this is what I have!” Angella presented the boxes and boxes of clothes to them.

“This is… A lot.”

“Yeah well, I only want the best for you guys!” Angella beamed.

Bow had none of the hesitation Adora did and immediately began dissecting everything and making piles.

“Alright thank you thank you, we will send you an insane amount of pictures in 5k don’t worry but please leave us to our work.” Glimmer ushered her towards the door.

“I will be printing them out Glimmer.”

“I know!”

The door closed and Glimmer turned around triumphantly. “Alright kids. Let’s work.”

\--

If Adora was being honest she was _bored._ like cosmically bored. She liked new clothes like everyone else, liked dressing up feeling pretty, feeling good. But she had arrived on her outfit very quickly and was lounging around mouth numb from saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to every new idea that Bow or Glimmer pulled out.

Their living room was a wreck, like a proper wreck. You couldn’t walk anywhere without getting tangled in fabric, Adora was probably going to scream. Or climb up to the roof and take off into the night on Swiftwind.

“Can we please give it a rest?”

Bow and Glimmer looked at each other. “Adora. This is important.”

“Yes, so is our living room no being culmination of every cutoff from every fabric shop in the city.”

“I thought you’d be excited about being allowed to go outside.”

“I am. But That feeling has been overridden since it’s still a while away and I’ve been sitting here sorting out you lot for the past- who knows how long.”

Bow narrowed his eyes. “Are you upset because you’re hungry?”

“Uh- Yes!?” They hadn’t eaten and Adora did not function without food, a very well documented fact.

Glimmer laughed, almost dropping the swath of tulle in her hands as she doubled over.

“I- ADORA- I- I promise that we’ll make something soon, we’re literally almost done, if you’re that hungry why not just. Eat a musli bar?”

“Whatever.”

“Okay. Okay final three options for both of us, can you live with that?”

“I think I could manage.” Adora let her voice slip back into sarcasm, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t actually mad at her friends but for some reason she just couldn’t feel as excited about the ball as she wanted to, and that, was frustrating.

Glimmer pushed other clothes out of the way until she had a nice rectangle of space, then draped once of the options until everything desirable was displayed.

“Okay, I really like that one, but this all hinges on whether or not you and Bow wanna match.”

Glimmer considered. “Yeah. Yeah I wanna match with him.” Bow send her the most soft look and Glimmer rolled her eyes and went up to him, planting a kiss on his forehead. “What did you think I wouldn’t want too? Idiot.”

Bow probably would’ve actually died then and their, but Adora, professional third wheel was there to save him.

“Yeah, okay, yuck. Please never do that again, I actually feel genuinely sick to my stomach-“ She mimed throwing up and Glimmer threw her (empty) drink bottle at her.

“Rude.”

“You deserved it.”

“Hmm. If y’all wanna match properly you should probably go with this one, and then that one because A: they’re not identical but are still very clearly a matched set and honestly the astehistic? Chefs kiss.”

“Alright. I can roll with that, Bow?”

“I would wear anything if it meant I got to dance with you.”

“Are you serious? I am leaving. Please slide a note under my door when it’s time to eat because I cannot handle this. In fact, I refuse to.”

\---

“Sentient again.” Adora had no clue when she started waking up like this, but she had made the habit of opening her eyes, sitting up, sighing deeply and mourning her consciousness.

Man, she needed to go outside. It was desperate.

She clawed her sheets away unplugging her phone and checking the time.

6:00AM

_Seriously?_

Adora had also, begun waking up before the sun. Regrettable at best. Goosebumps rushed along her skin. It was also really. Really. Really. Cold.

This was not a good start.

Her Royalty Ball outfit was hanging on the back of her door, looking haunting. Still coming to grips with her own style, sometimes clothing-related things didn’t really work This though, this she was proud of.

Either way, she had a few days to kill. Adora still wasn’t allowed anywhere. It was kinda killing her. It was fine.

Making another incredible fashion decision she pulled on a jumper from her floor, this one in a bright shade of yellow, and let hunger drag her to the kitchen.

“Good morning!”

Bow made a strangled noise as Adora reflexively grabbed him, magic sparking.

“Sorry.” Adora dropped him.

Bow’s eyes were wide as he pulled on his hoodie to straighten it out. “Are you alright?”

“I’m just-“ She gestured vaguely.

“You always seem to be ‘just-‘” He mimicked her movements.

Adora groaned resting her head gently on the fridge door. “Please don’t make me have this conversation before I eat or drink something.”

Bow put up his hands and leant against the bench waiting for her to root around the fridge.

One bowl of disappointing weetbix and three glasses of water later she shrugged. “Alright.”

“Is it being inside?”

“I mean… kind of? It’s just. Not being She-Ra, because when I’m She-Ra things are _interesting_ all the time, I’m never bored, and then when I’m Adora I usually have so much stuff to do that it’s kinda go, go, go, all the time and I _like_ that. I like being busy, so just doing nothing is. Well. It’s kind of the complete opposite of me.”

Bow looked at her the way he did when he was going to say something she probably wasn’t going to like.

“Do you think, that maybe that’s the point. Like, are you _sure_ that you truly like being busy? Or is that just kinda how it’s always been? Look, I’m not tryna psychoanalyse you but, it could be worth thinking about.”

Adora scrunched up her face. “But I relax like all the time, I work in a bath store, I’m constantly surrounded by relaxing things.”

Bow shook his head. “Being around relaxing things doesn’t make you relax, I know this because whenever I go into the crystal shop near us the scent makes my head spin in a very not relaxed way, though it’s meant to be. Anway- the point of being relaxed is to be in a state of not moving. Working isn’t relaxing I don’t care _what_ job you have, so that points null, plus you’re always stressed about uni. Do you relax as much as you think you do?”

Adora pushed away from the table. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Adora-“

She had already left.

\---

“I mean you should apologise to him.”

Adora stared up at the clouds as they tumbled into eachother, too caught up in their own chaos to let in the blue.

“I know.”

“So do it.”

“Swiftwind.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.” Swiftwind huffed going back to eating messily.

Adora wasn’t feeling good. In fact she was feeling very _not good._ She was on the rooftop again, partly to make sure Swiftwind had every comfort, mostly because she didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Anyone who wasn’t a magical horse.

Also. It was going to rain, and she would have to go back inside, because although she was reckless, she wasn’t stupid enough lay on cold concrete while it rained icy water.

“Ugh. I wanna go back to bed.”

Swiftwind paused mid-mouthful. “You just woke up.” At least that’s what Adora thinks he said, it was hard to tell.

“Still.”

Swiftwind shrugged, and because he was a horse this actually mean that he quickly flared and tucked in his wings while avoiding eye contact. It was complicated being a horse okay?

“If I apologise then that’s admitting I’m _wrong_ right?”

Swiftwind tactically didn’t say anything.

“Maybe wrong isn’t the right word. I don’t know, maybe I don’t mean wrong I mean like, he’s right.”

Adora pushed up on her elbows catching Swiftwind’s gaze.

“Is he right?”

\---

The next morning Adora woke up early again. Apparently this was going to be a habit. She didn’t move though, just laid there watching the sunlight filter in making intricate patterns on her walls.

Bow rustled around in the kitchen. That wasn’t why Adora was still in bed even though it was boiling. Right?

Maybe being indoors this long was bad for her health.

_VRRRRR_

She scooped up her phone, and the screen flashed at her.

_REMINDER: THERAPY TODAY :)))))_

Adora dropped it back on the floor.

\---

“So. Do you want me to pick you up?” Bow ventured.

Adora stopped, hand still on the door. “You would?”

Bow recoiled. “What? Of course I would- Nothing you could do would stop me. I mean, if you killed Glimmer or joined the Horde maybe not then, but because you’re still working stuff out? Yeah, nah.”

Adora bobbed her head and shut the door behind her.

Walking to therapy was an experience. First, it’s fine whatever walking places it’s good for you. Then, you hit the ‘I am going to cry in a public space’ bit, where your brain realises that therapy is imminent and so switches to hypersensitive mode. Which was the not so fine bit about walking to therapy.

People passed by her too wrapped up in their own destinations or beginnings to notice how tight her throat felt. So she stopped. Took a customary deep breath. Plugged in her earphones cranked up some music and walked on.

It wasn’t a huge walk but in any kind of weather you were acutely aware that it was about 10 minutes past barely tolerable.

For some reason her office was perched on top of a solar panel company so you had to enter a secret door just to the left of it, nearly die on some incredibly steep stairs that had the beautiful addition of not having any kind of banister that you could grip. Her door was open and Adora couldn’t hear any voices so she walked in, slightly breathless. “Hey”

“Hi Adora, I’ve just gotta sort this out but take a seat and I will be with you in a moment.”

\---

Adora always found therapy to be like putting salt on an ulcer while getting a massage, overall you’re relaxed but the whole point of it is doing things that are uncomfortable. It probably wasn’t the most attractive metaphor she could’ve thought of but it did get the message across, anyone she said it too got a faraway, confused, look on their face as they imagined it but ended up nodding once it had all sunk in.

Bow had hidden the car behind some others as they all crowded up to a pub further down the block. He had to stand on the footpath in his almost neon pink jacket glancing around for the express purpose of drawing more attention to himself. He’d picked her up from therapy so many times he probably could tell you the regulars of the second-hand bookstore and the pub. That was kind of worrying.

She waved her arms far too enthusiastically for a regular person and Bow immediately waved back, she walked towards him catching up quickly.  
  


“Your chariot awaits.” He bowed deeply.

“Thank you my dear.” She primly turned up her nose and delicately opened the car door both of them laughing as they closed the doors.

She hadn’t forgotten their conversation; in fact, she’d brought it up to her therapist who tactfully pointed out that maybe she should think about why it bothers he so much and subsequently teased out Adora admitting that he was probably right. Adora hated that her therapist was often right, what the heck man, it’s like she was a professional at what she did or something.

She didn’t say anything though.

They drove in silence, it wasn’t an awful hateful silence but it was still words unsaid. At the end of the day though, Bow had shown up, and he always would.

\---

“Today is the day!” Glimmer pronounced grandly eyes shining and arms thrown wide.

Adora was hunched in her oldest and subsequently dirtiest hoodie. “Yay.”

“I will not let your bad vibes ruin my good ones Adora.”

“I’m going back to bed. Why did you even wake us up for this?”

“Adora c’mon this is exciting!”

Adora burrowed deeper into her hoodie.

“We are going to do fun thing today, and then we are going to have an epic night being far fancier that we were ever born to be” Glimmer said, hands on hips.

“Alright. What are we doing?”

“Wait you’re up for this?”

Adora jutted her chin out. “Well. Yeah. I’m not about to leave you hanging even if it is far too early for this.”

Glimmer gave her a winning smile.

“Excellent. I printed out timetables-”

Adora sucked in a deep breath.

\---

Their first stop was the hairdressers, Glimmer had booked ahead because: “I’m not an _animal_ Adora!”

Adora had spent the 20 minutes they were allowed to get ready by frantically googling hairdresser’s etiquette, some very helpful threads and a crash course in how to properly dye your hair later Adora was dragged to the car and away from their Wi-Fi.

The whole thing had gone a lot more smoothly than she’d anticipated, the hairdressers were nice and by some miracle the basin didn’t dig into her neck when they washed her hair. It still felt weird having strangers touch her hair but when she swooshed around her hair and ran her hands through it feeling the unexpected jump of her hand when she reached the clean ends of it was pretty worth it. Something about having it all fall in a straight line across her back made her feel like she was put together.

“So what’s the next stop?”

Glimmer fwoped her laminated timetable dramatically and Adora could ‘t help but smile.

“Well if you’d be so kind as to look at your provided sheets of paper you’d see that we are now going to eat fancy food and after that spend and excessive amount of time prepping for this ball.”

Bow laughed. “You had me at fancy food.”

“That was like the second thing I said-“

\---

“Alright, that is easily the best meal I’ve had.”

“you literally ate all of the bread.”

Glimmer threw up her hands. “And? Is a gal not allowed to have some bread?”

Adora mimicked her. “Yes, a gal is but I draw the line at NINE pieces of bread.”

Bow was absolutely losing it. “I- y- your face when you realised there was- there was none left was-“ He wheezed barely managing to breathe. “I’ve never seen someone so disappointed-“

Adora giggled which hiccupped into full blown laughter part way through.

Glimmer tried to fold her arms and look menacing, but her mouth kept twitching as she watched them.

“Alright, It was pretty funny.”

By the time they returned to the car none of them could stand up straight and they had to take a _significant_ amount of time to calm down.

“Okay, Okay. Death, grief, dead puppies.” Bow took a death breathe that only rattled a little bit with laughter, Adora who was trying to visualise roman torture methods bit down on her tongue hard to keep from laughing. _A roman torture method would be to prevent ban Glimmer from eating bread._ She erupted into laughter again, which set of Bow who some how managed to look so incredibly angry while he cackled.

“STOP! It literally isn’t even that fu- That funny.” Glimmer tried to bite back her smile but to no avail.

“Glimmer I could not tell you why this is the funniest thing to happen to anyone in the history of the world, but it is and I can’t- I-“ Adora bit the inside of her cheeks.

“It’s not even funny-“ Bow said gently hitting his head against the steering wheel.

“It really isn’t”

“What’s next.” Bow kept his head resting on the wheel, his voice hoarse and tired.

“Uhhh, I think we’re up to the getting dressed and makeup and stuff bit.”

“CoOl” His voice cracked.

Adora laughed.

\---

“How did this happen?” Frosta had showed up to their place, she was royalty as well and didn’t feel like showing up by herself.

Bow laid in living room which was a tip, the traditional buckets of makeup stuff that they all had had been emptied onto the floor and were scattered nine ways to Sunday. 

Frosta had brought her own stuff which wasn’t all over the floor. She had let Bow who had the steadiest hand flick dark blue eyeliner into flawlessly sharp point. And then she had grabbed silver-blue glitter and heavily coated her eyelids with it. She had also dug up a sparkly highlighter and ran it across her cheekbones.

She’d opted for a metallic dress with a matching cape, all in all she looked like liquid silver and bored as she glared at their mess.

“Look this is a creative process alright?”

“We have less than an hour before we need to leave.”

“It’s a _process_ ” Bow pressed.

“Sure.”

“Okay, Okay, I’m ready are y’all ready?” Glimmer’s voice poked through the crack in the door and everyone gave her their full attention.

“Alright.”

Glimmer appeared in a deep royal purple tulle dotted with silver stars, the skirt was wide and layered, and floated around her as she walked, she’d done her makeup in matching purples and silvers, and had dug up a tophat that she tipped at them gracefully.

“What do we think~?”

Bow stood up, and took the top hat from her, placing it back on her head. “I think you look beautiful.”

Frosta and Adora made retching sounds when Glimmer kissed him.

She did look really lovely though.

Bow had matched her in his suit which was also a dark purple dotted with stars, it wasn’t cropped, but his shirt had most of the buttons undone.

“Nah, honestly Glimmer I think you look awesome.”

Glimmer came over and hugged her best she could without smudging her makeup.

“You still need to get changed though, there is no way I am letting you show up like that.”

Adora pushed her away faking annoyance. “Alright, give me a minute.”

She left them picking up the pieces of the living room and made her way back to her room. She was mostly proud of her ensemble but there was always the sickening swoop of her stomach that happened whenever she went to show her friends her clothes.

She fussed in the mirror, pulling at the fabric of her shirt, rolling then unrolling the cuffs of her pants, soon she realised that she was just stalling. A deep breath. She walked into the living room.

“No comments unless they’re nice please.”

“Adora! I knew you were gonna wear that, yet it still looks awesome!”

Adora rolled her eyes, but no longer felt like she was going to fall in on herself as Bow high-fived her.

“Dude you nailed the theme!” Frosta gave her a smile that was sharp edged,

She had on a blood red jacket who’s coattails were about three time longer than normal and came to a end just under her knees, she’d dug out a plain white linen shirt and matched Bow on the buttons front, her pants though were navy blue almost black and had massive gold stars splotched on them.

Adora let herself be pushed gently onto the floor as Bow held up eyeliner and she did her best to instruct him on the vibe she was going for.

In the end she walked away with small wings which were more like curled flicks like you’d do at the end of ‘d’ if you were trying to be fancy with it. She’d permitted a few stars to be drawn on her cheekbones and a faint shimmer of gold glittery highlight be added.

“Alright, alright, is everyone ready?” Glimmer rubbed her hands together.

They all chorused out a yes.

“To the ball!” Glimmer pointed grandly to the door and ushered them.

Bow drove and Frosta took the front seat, forcing Glimmer and Adora to navigate the huge swaths of fabric and easily tangled coattails, they did manage to get themselves sorted though, and they were off.

The city was relatively quiet, the streetlights not yet flicked on, everyone else would be having dinner or just breathing after a long day at work, there were still people milling about because it was Etheria and people lived to be contrary.

It didn’t take long for them to pull up to Mermista’s place.

They clutched their invites as they followed the trickle of people inside the building. The domed glass ceiling of the foyer because, it was a foyer, the large majority of the estate was underground. The stairs were killer but that was just another thing that made it even appealing as a ball location.

The security scrutinised their invites which made Adora almost laugh, it was still a school function after all. They let them all in and were then directed to the long lines of temporary changing rooms where they were to de-weaponise themselves, a very necessary part of the ball since it was Etheria and when you mixed a tasteful amount of alcohol with weapons and people you knew from your classes it never really went well.

Adora took her fair share of time debating on whether or not to remove her sword necklace. It was her one key to She-Ra. The only thing that made her put on her replica one and drop the real one into a paper bag was the two sensors who stood at the double doors to the staircase a faint cloud hazing over the guests as they scanned for any kind of magic.

She met up with the others, and they all handed their respective bags with their respective scrawled names on them to the weapons bar.

“Are we ready to descent into madness?” Adora said.

“Yep.”

“yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

They melded into the crowd feeling the haze of the sensors magic scan over their bodies. They passed through without incident and followed the crowd down the spiral steps.

It became colder and colder as they disappeared further and further into the depths, yellow lanterns that were built into the wall sparked to life and kept them from falling as the light from above got fainter and fainter.

No one’s voice rose above a whisper, their shoes scuffing and clicking against the stone. Soon they heard music flow through the vents in the stairwell, classical but upbeat. Adora hadn’t known that Mermista knew what classical music was.

There was another set of double doors, these ones far smaller and more curved, almost like a porthole, the rock around them became less even, less polished. They walked underneath the archway and passed through a curtain of soft black fabric. Adora blinked furiously against the sudden light.

Then she alongside everyone else breathed in. It was a tunnel, covered in glass, dark water in every direction. The dirt under their feet was hard packed but it was the bioluminescent coral that spanned out to either side of them, the inky shapes lit up from their bellies by thins stripes of light in their skin, flashing eyes and constant movement, it was that that made them all gasp.

Their pace slowed as their heads swivelled, arms stretching, fingers pointing, the rustle of fabric and voices ringing out in the echoing tunnel. The music was quieter here, but still hummed underneath it all.

Still, they moved on.

They then came to an almost identical set of double doors as at the beginning of the tunnel, were ushered through another blackout curtain, then true light, light like on the surface shone from chandeliers and rockpools with fountains of water running all along the outsides of the cave, which was a gentle word for it, double the size of any kind of ballroom that Adora had ever seen the inside of, she couldn’t stop staring at everything. Banners ran like liquid gold down from the ceiling. Waiters with balanced silver plates and masquerade masks hiding their features floated around the place, mingling with the guests who were already there.

Glimmer had taken Bow’s arm and Adora followed them mesmerised. Frosta immediately peeled off seeing some of her mates loitering by the food.

“Ugh hey or whatever.”

Mermista had on gold dangly earrings and had folded her arms over a gold trimmed teal shawl.

“Mermista- I didn’t know that- that- that you lived here?” Bow managed.

“I don’t, not anymore, this is my parents place.” She rolled her eyes, showing off her metallic eyeliner. “Your outfits are cool though.”

“Thanks! Have you seen any of the others?” Glimmer asked. Adora wasn’t sure how she was forming words.

“Uhh, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are like 300 people in this room. Anyway, I have to go make sure that Seahawk isn’t permanently scarring some of our staff.” She slipped away.

They glanced at each other eyes wide. “Guess we’re on our own.”

\---

Catra hated what she was about to do. She hated it with so much of her being it hurt. She hated it because she didn’t hate it at all.

She walked in her wedged heels down the tunnel, her mission numbing her to the allure of the lights. She did make an effort to blend in though. Her dress was skintight but stretchy, two massive slits on either side allowed her free movement, she’d also managed to tame her hair so all the spikes lay flat and the grey bits under her ears were curled upwards. Catra had spent a bit of time finding ink black lipstick and pearl earrings, to complete the look.

She could tell she’d done a good job since as she walked heads turned regardless of gender.

Scorpia struggle to keep up with her, still slightly shaky in her heels, her outfit was similar to Catra’s but adapted to accommodate her carapace. The plan was relatively simple, it was recognisance, no fighting given the impracticality of their attire. She flicked her ears alert to ever conversation that she walked by. So far nothing even remotely interesting.

They walked into the main cave and she had to admit Mermista had done a stellar job. It almost looked like the kinda place she’d hang around just because.

She immediately picked out Adora, Glimmer, and Bow. Who looked like lost sheep in the crowd though she could say they cleaned up nicely.

There were neatly concealed balconies running close to the ceiling only visible because of the numerous ribbons and other festively magical decorations strewn around its pillars.

She quickly found the stairs and gestured to Scorpia to follow her.

They ascended the stairs and it immediately got quieter, all the speakers were set up to get maximum volume in the centre of the room, way up the eves you just got whispers of it.

“Okay. So are you good on the mission?”

“Mission? Y’all are doing a mission too?”

Catra nearly jumped out her skin, her claws indistinctly sliding out.

“Entraptna right?”

“Yep.” She was dangling upside down, overalls still her usual lavender but she had taken a white paint marker and scrawled stars across the front of them.

Catra recovered from her shock and adjusted her choker a fraction. “Yeah, we are doing an experiment, you could call it a social experiment even.”

Entraptna’s eyes widened. “Oh what a coincidence! So am I! What I find most fascinating about these gatherings is just how ripe it is for disaster, all these different groups? Plus, the school variable? Incredible opportunity for observation.” She pulled up her binoculars and her hair swung her body around the pillar until she got sure footing again. “I’m going to stop talking to you now I have just seen the athletic group and the angry group merge and I don’t have time to talk to you.”

“It was nice meeting you!” Scorpia said cheerily.

Catra flicked her tail, it was clear that Entrapna didn’t really suspect anything and she was fine to let her continue her experiment provided she didn’t bother theirs.

She stalked towards the other end of the balcony out of Entraptna’s hearing.

“Any-way. I reckon we just mingle as best we can and stick close to those Rebellion idiots, they’re the ones we’re here for. Got it Scorpia, only the Rebellion losers, no. one. Else.”

Scorpia nodded seriously and Catra nodded back. “let’s go.”

She left Scorpia standing there and merged back with crowd. Her feet weren’t killing her yet so she kept a almost honest smile on her face as she twirled around clusters of party-goers.

She saw a flash of blonde hair in a stupidly high ponytail and plucked a glass of cranberry juice from a waiter’s tray. _Let’s dance._

\---

Adora had relaxed into the party atmosphere now, she was laughing without thinking about how her voice sounded, she was dancing without thinking about whoever was looking.

They’d located Perfuma and she was lecturing Bow on proper fern as he frantically took notes in his phone. Glimmer was third wheeling with Netossa and Spinnerella.

Adora felt light and altogether like maybe she would have something positive to tell her therapist. That was until she bumped into Scorpia.

“Oh I am so sorry, I’m just pretty clumsy normally and these heels just makes things so much worse-“

“Hey Scorpia.”

“Oh. Hey Adora.”

“Hey Scorpia.”

“You said that already.”

Adora thought for a moment, trying to grab at anything to say. “Uh, cool location for a ball huh.”

Scorpia rubbed the back of her neck. “It is pretty cool.”

“I’m sorry-”

“-I’m sorry “

They both laughed nervously.

“Look, I don’t really know what to say, It’s kinda weird now.”

“Yeah, it is a little, you found out that uh the Horde owns the bakery…”

“I was kidnapped by them for a little bit…”

“yeah, that was not my idea I promise I still think you’re cool.”

“Thanks.”

Adora sucked in a breath. _Okay, this is going really bad you brought up the fact you got kidnapped by the Horde to a Horde member. How do we recover this situation?_

“So, are you royalty?”

Scorpia looked grateful for the subject change. “Oh yeah, I’m actually quite good at magical biology or whatever I forgot the name for it, Cat- I mean Cas, isn’t so she’s my plus one.”

Adora faltered a little. “Wait, Cas is here?”

“Yeah she kinda ditched me though.”

Adora nodded half listening, half scanning the crowd. She bit the inside of her cheek and forced herself to stop looking for her.

“I don’t think I hate you.”

Scorpia nodded, a little dazed.

“I mean, well, it’s true but I- I was gonna be more tactful about that.” She rubbed her face trying to dislodge whatever it was that mangled her intentions from her brain.

“Why don’t you hate me, I mean obviously I don’t want you to hate me but uh did you miss the whole-“ She gestured to her all black outfit. “Situation with that? I mean, I’m kinda evil.”

Adora thought about it, leaning back on her heels a little bit.

“I don’t know, I guess my image of you and the- y’know don’t really mesh. You could just be long conning me but I really hope that’s not the case.”

Scorpia opened her mouth to respond but Bow pulled at her arm spinning her off-balance, she just managed to get out a rushed goodbye before Scorpia was completely out of sight.

“What?”

“That was a _Horde_ soldier?”

“Oh, yeah, but she’s a nice Horde soldier.”

Bow looked at her. “ _What?_ ”

Adora shrugged. “I had it handled either way, I mean this is a no weapons place so really how much danger was I in?”

Bow made some complicated facial expressions that did not look nice nor comfortable. “Just don’t talk to anymore Horde soldiers.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

They melded back into the crowd but Adora looked over her shoulder when she heard laughter that seemed familiar somehow.

Mermista had come full circle and joined their group again, Seahawk leaning heavily on her shoulders.

“I guess we’ve gotta do our dramatic ball dance scene now, so I suppose go find the loves of your lives or something.”

Seahawk’s eyes got really wide. “Mermista will you let me have this dance?”

Mermista shoved him off her shoulders but offered her arm for him to take, gallantly ignoring the darkening blush on her face. “Okay, whatever.”

Glimmer asked Bow to dance, he accepted, Adora wondered how she managed to fifth wheel.

Mermista ascended a small set of stairs standing by some artfully carved stone depicting coral. “It is my absolute pleasure to announce that it is time for the first dance of the ball.” She put just enough emotion into it to avoid the glares from the faculty but it was still very on brand.

Everyone rushed to the middle as gracefully as they could in their formal wear.

Adora was left without a partner and she felt her heart climb into her throat. A million possibilities ran through her mind as everyone else around her worked out partners. _What if she was just left here and had to fake dancing, what if someone really awful swooped in at the last second, what if-_

She didn’t complete her thought.

A hand slid into hers and Adora tried to remember how to breathe. It was Cas, it had to be, though her brain had a hard time correlating the girl who dug her initials into the wood of her desk and the girl currently in a skintight velvet dress. She was wearing _heels._

“So, You’re royalty?”

Cas laughed. It was the same laugh that she heard before. The music picked up, Adora hoped her body remembered the moved because currently she wasn’t thinking about a thing.

“No I’m not royalty I hitched a ride as a plus one from one of my smarter mates.”

Adora nodded, thanking everything that her arm swung up as they twirled around each other.

_How did she smell so good?_

“Where did you go by the way? You just went MIA.”

“Uh, long story.”

“I’ve got time.” Cas smiled at her.

“I don’t.”

“How mysterious.”

Adora sincerely hoped that the lights were enough to hide her embarrassment.

“I’ll see you in a bit princess.” Cas let the flow of the crowd spin her away and Adora caught Perfuma still reeling from the honorific.

“Have you seen Scorpia? I can’t find her anywhere.” Adora lifted her high into the air and shook her head.

“Nah not recently. Sorry Perfuma.”

She glided to her feet and they did a series of snapping gestures and Perfuma shrugged as she twirled away.

Glimmer was next, and Adora tried to clear her brainfog by admiring the way her skirts flared and swished when she turned. It didn’t really work.

“Glimmer I think I might be gayer than anticipated.”

Glimmer laughed, almost breaking form. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

She was gone and Cas leant back into her chest. “Told you I’d be back.”

Adora knew that her heart was racing and by the way that Cas raised an eyebrow up at her she knew it too. Adora reached up her arm to let her spin into the next sequence but Cas grabbed that arm and pulled until Adora lost balance.

Everything slowed down. Adora caught the glint of Cas’ pearl earrings, the sharp edge of her smile, the orange and vanilla smell falling from the curtain of her hair, the way the lights played against her skin, how secure her arm felt around her waist. Cas’ gaze flicked up behind her head and her eyes narrowed a fraction.

“It was fun dancing with you Adora, I’ll see you in class.” With that she pulled her up and gave a salute as the lights lifted, the music ground to a halt and Adora just managed to jump out of the way of two figures who were grappling on the ground.

She looked around for Cas but she was gone.

Frosta hissed at the two fighting, her ice gauntlets on full display. “Cut it out.” Sometimes you forgot why Frosta had such an affinity for ice but no one was doubting it was her element now.

A patch of space spread out from the three of them and the guards pushed forward. The ball was officially over.

\---

Catra joined Scorpia at the entrance, even if Scorpia wasn’t a fantastic Horde soldier she did still have good instincts and as soon as the fight broke out she had slipped out.

“I hope you learned something valuable.”

Scorpia shrugged. “I know that Adora doesn’t hate me.”

Catra rolled her eyes and motioned for them to start walking. As they turned the corner and away from the ball she popped out her earrings, tucking them into a pocket, she then unwrapped the burgundy metal bracelet from her wrist and let it morph back into her mask’s familiar shape. She pulled of her platforms holding them by two of her fingers.

Scorpia quickly cut loose the strap of her dress and as it fell her whole dress changed, black velvet fell away to reveal gold sparkling silk, she quickly tucked in the loose ends and made sure everything was secure.

Catra hadn’t opted for such a dramatic change in wardrobe but she did pull on a hidden tab and the colour of her dress shimmered into a chrome red and gold.

They weren’t really expecting anyone to connect what they were about to do with the ball, that was mainly about alibis. Either way it would be stupid to try and pull something like this off without at least a small amount of effort to change their appearance. Plus. She missed the cold metal of her mask.


End file.
